Courtesy of Sotheby's

Bastienne Leuthe: “With 4096 Farben, Gerhard Richter brings the series of Colour Chart paintings to a brilliant finale."

On 18 May, one of Gerard Richter's major works, 4096 Farben was auctioned in New York. A buyer purchased the work for 21.8 million dollars. Bastienne Leuthe, Head of Contemporary Art, Germany, was in the sale. She is a proven Gerhard Richter art expert and gave Alethea Magazine a deep insight into the work and this creative period in Gerhard Richter's life. The work also has a very special relationship to Düsseldorf, because it was in the Düsseldorf paint shop Sonnenherzog in the early 1970s that Gerhard Richter found the colour sample cards on display so fascinating that he began working on the Colour Chart paintings. In the years that followed, he developed and perfected them further. The reason for 4096 Farben being one of the main works of this creative period is explained in the interview.

4096 Farben was also the inspiration for the cathedral window?

Bastienne Leuthe: In 2002, shortly after his major retrospective at the MOMA, Richter was asked whether he could imagine creating a new stained-glass window for the cathedral. As an artist living in Cologne, Gerhard Richter was enthusiastic about this request. The brief was to relate to the six martyrs of the 20th century. He did not feel up to this task and considered turning down the commission as he did not want to visualise these martyrs. By chance, he had a large image of 4096 Farben at hand, which he placed under the pattern of the window.

July 3, 2023

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