Gerhard Richter: Goldberg-Variationen

Gerhard Richter: Goldberg-Variationen
RICHTER, GERHARD
1932 Dresden

Title: Goldberg-Variationen.
Date: 1984.
Technique: Record painted over on one side with oil paint, featuring Bach's Goldberg Variations (recorded by Glenn Gould 1982).
Diameter 30.1cm.
Notation: Numbered, signed and dated on the Label verso: 1/100 Richter 84.
Number: 1/100.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

The original record sleeve is included with the work. The painted record is Richter's contribution to the portfolio 'Hommage à Cladders' published by the Museumsverein Mönchengladbach, which contains editions by 18 artists. Fifty copies of the edition were published in the portfolio, and another 50 copies were sold individually.

The work is listed on the official internet site of the artist under Editionen (Editions). (www.gerhard-richter.com)

Literature:
- Butin, Hubertus/Gronert, Stefan/Olbricht, Thomas (eds.): Gerhard Richter - Editions 1965-2013, Ostfildern/Cologne 2013, cat. rais. no. 60

- Beautiful squeegee work on an unusual image carrier
- Number 1 in the edition and always privately owned
- Each work in the series is unique
- Homage to Bach and Glenn Gould's interpretation


Homage and Destruction
In 1984, Gerhard Richter used the legendary LP that Canadian pianist Glenn Gould had recorded in 1982 with Johann Sebastian Bach's “Goldberg Variations” as the image carrier or painting surface for his edition of the same name. The edition consists of one hundred variants, which can be described as unique pieces in a series, as each copy is slightly different.
The artist first applied yellow oil paint with a squeegee and then blue, white, and red oil paint with a brush. Since the painted side of the record can no longer be played, this suggests an ambivalence in the artistic intention, especially since Richter had an ambivalent relationship with the music when he created the edition. He greatly admired and appreciated Bach's famous composition and often listened to it while working in his studio. But in 1984, his admiration turned to rejection. On October 19 of that year, Richter noted the following thought: "Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations. For a year or two, I've listened to almost nothing else. What is beginning to annoy me is the perfection. This completely absurd, boring, malicious perfection." Therefore, the painterly treatment of the record can be understood both as an homage to Bach and as a destruction of Gould's recording. Admiration and rejection, appreciation and negation go hand in hand here without canceling each other out.
Hubertus Butin


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Explanations to the Catalogue

Gerhard Richter
Germany
Abstraction
Capitalistic Realism
New Realism
Post-War Art
Sculptures
1980s
Abstract
Object
Oil