Wako Works of Art is pleased to announce Drawings 2018-2022 and Elbe 1957, the gallery’s 12th solo exhibition of the work of German artist Gerhard Richter, which will be on view from Sat., June 11 to Sat., July 30, 2022.

Catalogue available
Gerhard Richter Drawings 2018-2022 and Elbe 1957

* In Japanese only

Overview

The show features 18 of Richter’s most recent drawings, from 2018 to 2022, and an edition of a set of 31 prints, Elbe [Editions CR: 155], created 65 years ago. All of these works are on view in Japan for the first time.

Detail

Each of the 18 drawings are inscribed with dates, which serve as the titles of the works. These abstract drawings in pencil, graphite, and ink give the impression of core elements extracted from Richter’s complex, multi-layered oil paintings, while their compositions fully embody the unique charm of drawings.

The 31-part series Elbe, which will be exhibited alongside the artist’s latest drawings, is an edition of monotype prints made in 1957 (when he was 25 years old), the year after he graduated from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Richter left the works with a friend when he departed East Germany in 1961, and they were editioned in 2012 through high-resolution shooting. The use of a rubber roller, the balance between landscape, figure, and abstraction, and many other elements of Richter’s style that would be refined in later years can be seen in this extremely valuable set of early works.

These two sets of works by Gerhard Richter, very early prints and the very latest drawings, were made 65 years apart. We are delighted to offer this rare opportunity to view them side by side.

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932, where he lived until 1961, studying first at the Kunstakademie, Dresden from 1951-1956, and then at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, from 1961-1963.

Detail

He has been the recipient of numerous distinguished awards, including the Staatspreis of the State Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, in 2000; the Praemium Imperiale Award, Japan, 1997; the Golden Lion of the 47th Biennale, Venice, 1997; the Kaiserring Prize der Stadt Goslar, Germany, 1988; and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna, 1985.

Gerhard Richter has been the subject of numerous important solo exhibitions, most recently at the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany (through May 29, 2016); the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany (2015); the Foundation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland (2014); the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2014); and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2013). Since the 1960s he has shown internationally and has had a number of traveling retrospective shows including most recently Panorama at the Tate Modern, London, the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.