Großer Vorhang, Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter
Großer Vorhang
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Gerhard Richter

Großer Vorhang, 1967


Dimensions
200 x 275 x 4.5 cm
Physical Description
Oil on canvas
Inventory Number
SG 1274
Acquisition
Acquired in 1991
Status
Not on display

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About the Work

From a distance, we seem to be looking at a curtain falling in soft folds. As we come closer, the lines begin to flicker, the illusionistic effect dissolves. Richter’s work is a commentary on painting’s ever-recurring attempts to reproduce reality in a picture. In the Early Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti described painting as a window onto another world which strives for emancipation from its two-dimensional surface. Richter mistrusts this claim. He has painted a real-looking curtain which is closed – thus blocking the view to the other world. At the same time, the ‘Curtain’ is an abstract painting that also references the Op Art of the 1960s, which made use of perplexing optical effects.

Audio

  • Basic information
    01:09
  • Focus art history
    02:03
  • Exhibition “Outstanding! The Relief from Rodin to Picasso” (2023)
    01:54

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Last update

06.11.2024