When the Gerhard Richter Archive was founded in 2006, the acquisition of the artist’s work in print making was not yet on the agenda. Not until 2010 did the Archive begin acquiring art in addition to catalogs and books, letters, posters, invitations, press reports and ephemera. Initially, the focus was on works with a personal or biographical connection to the artist, including the Atelier editions from 1968 or the small-format Selbstbildnis from 1971.
Now, the Archive aims to make its collection as comprehensive as possible. As in his painterly oeuvre, this showcases Richter’s spirit of experimentation and wide range of variants as well as the fact that he has never been interested in traditional printmaking techniques such as woodcut or etching. Instead, he works almost exclusively with modern photomechanical processes such as offset and screen printing as well as photography.
This special exhibition presents numerous works from the Archive’s own collection, supplemented by selected pieces on loan, including samples and variations that Gerhard Richter created for his editions. Among them are items he has rendered unique by drawing over the initial version. The idea for this exhibition arose after the MUSEIS SAXONICIS USUI – Friends of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden e. V. donated the six-part portfolio, Kanarische Landschaften II to the Archive last year.
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