Gerhard Richter – Overpainted Photographs

Exhibited from March 21 – April 18, 2015

(now available to view on his website)

https://www.gerhard-richter.com

So I just wanted to learn a little bit more about Gerhard Richter, specifically his project “Overpainted Photographs”, as I am really drawn to them. I want to know what is the purpose of the art, why did he use paint, and break down what it is that I love about these works.

Gerhard Richter is known as one of the most important contemporary German artists. Having lived through the second world war as a child, this has impacted his artist practice. He has worked with painting, photography, and glass. His art has been exhibited all over the world – as well as set record prices when sold at auction. His art can be abstract as well as photorealistic, but most of all it is creative, individual and experimental.

This particular project was exhibited at the Hannah Hoffman Gallery in Los Angeles, USA, photographs overpainted in oil paint. Below are some images from the installation.

Courtesy of: https://archive.hannahhoffman.la/exhibitions/19/gerhard-richter-overpainted-photographs/

These overpainted photographs are made by somewhat randomly assembling wet paint onto the printed images in blobs, and then taking a long stick or ‘plastic doctor blade’ and then with a pulling action gliding the blade across the image & paint, in order to create these interesting colours and patterns. The blade allows some control as to the amount of paint left on the images, by using different speed and pressure, as well as different quantities of paint, which creates different effects. Sometimes there is some leftover paint on the blade, and the colours get muddled up into a strange mess. Though it seems Richter has a fair amount of control over this process after having to perfect it for so long (he has almost hundreds of these overpainted photographs on his website). One technique he uses is spoken of in the press release for this exhibition in greater detail…

“The works created by a kind of monotype process make up a high proportion as well. Classical monotype is one of the printing techniques for which the artist paints a smooth underlay with printing ink and takes a single print of the motif by for example rolling a sheet of paper over the paint-support surface while it is still wet. But Richter places the photograph on the flat side of the doctor blade, which is still covered with fresh paint, and then lifts it up again. This method always produces sharp, raised ridges within the oil paint surfaces, and these run through the painted areas like sets of branches (18. April ‘05).” 

Some of his other techniques include…

In his Firenze series Richter used the pulling technique but then also used a pallet knife in order to scrape off the paint until it was reduced to one paper thin layer. And as “a rule he draws the palette knife horizontally across the paint that is running vertically, and vice versa.” 

Overpainted offset print on paper, where Richter experiments with black and white varnish. This varnish outlined the ridges and “islands” of the paint laying over the images. Sometimes applying this process to the images themselves. Because varnish is much thinner than oils, it creates interesting forms and “ramifications” in the areas which the paints overlap or run into each other.

I was hoping that I might run into some background on Richter in the Press Release about why he experimented with paint and photography as I have been drawn to these two mediums and mixing them together for quite sometime now. However, it doesn’t mention any why’s. On his website the minimal caption for this experimentation reads as follows:

Overpainted Photographs

Since the mid 1980s Gerhard Richter has created more than 2,000 Overpainted Photographs – with new artworks continually being produced. This large body of work illustrates Richter’s wide range of creative achievement in this medium.

Originally I thought that these images were quite large, and after seeing some installation photos and the dimensions listed on his website that they are in fact relatively small in size. I thought that these images would work really well on a much larger scale.

What interests me about Richter’s work is his use of colour and abstract nature. Leaving just enough for us to wonder about the image, and the colour adding another meaning itself, the textures and patterns created by the physical paint also contributes to some interpretation of the piece. For example in the image above the green and white replicates the floral pattern of her dress – while toning down and contrasting against her bloodshot eyes. The hiding of her mouth conceals most of her identity and makes me wonder, trying to figure out more about the subject and what is happening in the photo. This is entirely purposeful, and this playful concealing and revealing with the application or absence of paint creates more drama. Sometimes the paint reminds me of a sort of membrane – or a kind of breaking screen. How you might visually articulate a memory which you cannot fully ‘see’ in your mind.

I’d like to create my own overpainted photographs, to play with the paint, to see how it moves, and to see what it adds/takes away from my images.

Isola

199212.5 cm x 18 cm

Oil on colour photograph

 

21.6.05

200510 cm x 14.7 cm

Oil on colour photograph

• nostalgic quality to them
• 21.06.05 looks like fish scales
• the sparseness of the paint seems to replicate the broken recalling of memories (when you summon them in your mind we see memories as kind of ‘images in our head’, but often can’t summon the whole picture in its totality)
• this kind of relates to my feeling of unknown identity. To either be remembered – as I use to be before all the ‘bad things’ happened, how I acted as a child (if that is my ‘identity’), or to construct this later as we re-construct the memories when reminded of them through photographs or such. To re-construct the image of myself is like the reconstructing of his family image. Maybe this work in particular reminds me of memory because I see a picnic and am reminded of a idyllic summer family outing setting.