Betty
Betty
Signed Print
Gerhard Richter
Price data unavailable
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Medium: Lithograph
Format: Signed Print
Year: 1991
Size: H 97cm x W 66cm
Edition size: 25
Signed: Yes
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Gerhard Richter's Betty (signed), a lithograph from 1991, is estimated to be worth £170,000 to £250,000. This artwork has been sold at auction seven times since its initial sale in May 2003. Over the last five years, the hammer price has ranged from £115,161 in November 2020 to £213,294 in February 2020. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 25.
Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2020 | Christie's London - United Kingdom | Betty - Signed Print | |||
| July 2015 | Christie's London - United Kingdom | Betty - Signed Print | |||
| May 2011 | Sotheby's New York - United States | Betty - Signed Print | |||
| September 2010 | Sotheby's New York - United States | Betty - Signed Print | |||
| September 2010 | Christie's London - United Kingdom | Betty - Signed Print | |||
| May 2003 | Christie's New York - United States | Betty - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
This signed colour offset lithograph print by German artist Gerhard Richter was issued in a very limited edition of 25 in 1991. Part of Richter’s famed Atlas series, it was made after one of Richter’s most famous images, and a standout example of Richter’s stunning, photorealist style: a 1991 painting entitled Betty, which depicts the artist’s daughter as she faces away from the onlooker.
Richter’s Betty is certainly one of his most well-known productions. Based on a 1978 photograph of the artist’s 11-year-old daughter, the portrait can be set aside from many of his other figurative works, which tend to operate via an optical and painterly effect that has often been given the simple moniker of ‘blurring’. Testament to Richter’s desire to complicate the relationship between reality, painting, and photography, this particular artwork is concerned chiefly with the question of technology. Polychromatic as opposed to black and white, the work’s highly-detailed, granular surface is imbued with a sense of the many hours that have gone into its production. This, of course, gives way to a paradox: although visually closer to a photograph than perhaps many other painted portraits, this work positions itself as far away as possible from those photographic technologies able to capture the intricacies of their subjects at the click of a button.
Betty is an important case study outlining the referential function of Richter’s so-called ‘Atlas’ - a monumental collection of personal and found images that form the basis of many of the artist’s works. Always the jump-off point for the artist’s representational artworks - but never an end in itself - the Atlas relays the intricate, technological nature of Richter’s practice. It also goes hand-in-hand with his so-called ‘blurring’ to strengthen his desire to deconstruct traditional artistic method. Commenting on his reasoning behind the blur technique, Richter once confessed: ‘I blur things so that they do not look artistic or craftsmanlike but technological, smooth and perfect. I blur things to make all the parts a closer fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.’
