Schweizer Alpen I - B2
Schweizer Alpen I - B2
Signed Print
Gerhard Richter
£21,000-£30,000 VALUE (EST.)
$40,000-$60,000 VALUE (EST.)
$35,000-$50,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥190,000-¥260,000 VALUE (EST.)
€24,000-€35,000 VALUE (EST.)
$200,000-$290,000 VALUE (EST.)
¥3,660,000-¥5,230,000 VALUE (EST.)
$26,000-$35,000 VALUE (EST.)
This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
Screenprint, 1969
Signed Print Edition of 300
H 19cm x W 69cm
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Artwork | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2016 | Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| October 2010 | Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| December 2008 | Karl & Faber - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| November 2007 | Lempertz, Cologne - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| October 2007 | Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| October 2006 | Ketterer Kunst Hamburg - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print | |||
| February 2002 | Lempertz, Cologne - Germany | Schweizer Alpen I - B2 - Signed Print |
Meaning & Analysis
This signed print by German visual artist Gerhard Richter belongs to the Swiss Alps collection. Issued in 1969 in an edition of 300, it is atypical of Richter’s landscape artworks during this period and notable for its abandonment of a photorealist style.
Produced in the same year as Richter’s first photo-realist depictions of landscape, which include works such as Wolken (Clouds) (1969) or Seestück I (1969), Schweizer Alpen I - B2 is at once representational and abstract. Betraying the identity of its subject matter - the Swiss Alps - only loosely, the work is characterised by gestural lines and a limited, monochromatic colour palette. Areas of darker paint recall the cavernous depths of mountain slopes, not yet warmed by the sun, and reveal dark rock beneath the snow’s coverage. White snow, picked out by solar glare, stands in direct opposition to these blocks of darker colour, and reveal the outline of a ghostly mountain range.
Viewed from either afar or in ‘close up’, this print is detached from traditional representation. Eschewing minute, photographic detail in favour of broad strokes, light, and shadow, it is a continued testament to Richter’s desire to enact the ‘death’ of traditional painting. The recipient of a ‘socialist realist’ artistic training whilst a student at the Dresden Academy, then under the control of the East German authorities, Richter was able to nurture traditional skills such as draughtsmanship but was confined to ideological subject matter. Restricted to the reproduction of a prescriptive, political style, Richter took great inspiration from artists working outside of the Soviet sphere of influence, such as Pablo Picasso, as well as from photography, both of which radically challenged the orthodox artistic dogma that surrounded him.
