Lot 127 D

“Gerhard Richter's history of using or referencing photographs in one way or another is long and complex, but whatever he does with an actual photograph or the idea of a photograph always seems to be reinvented. On viewing these overpainted small pictures, the size of snapshots, which I could shuffle like cards if I ever got them in my hand, I thought: they are so beautiful. One can only speculate what beauty is; it is a reaction to that what we see - one part appears to be a genetically programmed attraction of symmetries, of light and colour; the rest is probably learnt. I was, in any case, charmed by the colours of the overpainting and the picture underneath, and as I continued to look, I became melancholy, sad, amused, confused, amazed, and I was sometimes overcome by a feeling of painful loss. I laughed a few times. I was fascinated the whole time.” (Siri Hustvedt, Wahrheit und Richtigkeit, in: Markus Heinzelmann, Gerhard Richter, Übermalte Fotografien, exhib.cat. Museum Morsbroich i.a., Ostfildern 2009, p.73/74)