“The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both in its way of informing, and in what it informs of, it is my source”
—Gerhard Richter
This portrait of renowned art historian Karl-Heinz Hering, like many of Gerhard Richter’s early works, speaks to the artist’s deep engagement with themes of memory, identity and historical significance. Executed in 1968, Richter painted from a photograph, with the blurred lines between realism and abstraction in this piece reflecting his ongoing exploration of the ways in which images — and the people they depict — are shaped by the passage of time and the subjective nature of memory. The present work is a supreme example of the artist’s highly conceptual yet aesthetically elegant and resonant practice.
At the core of Richter’s practice lies a deep, career-long engagement with the concept of time, its cyclical nature and its representation through distinct artistic mediums. Time, for Richter, is a loop of past and present and, through his artistic praxis, he aims to capture singular moments and emotions, freezing them for eternity. The themes of memory and transformation are central to Richter’s 1960s photorealistic portraits, in which he deliberately sought to depict figures of cultural and intellectual significance, often drawing from personal acquaintances. In these portraits, Richter rejected the political ideologies of his youth, turning instead to individuals who represented intellectual freedom and creativity, such as Study 324 (Pail Hindemith) (1971) and Study 324 (Sigmund Freud) (1971). To create these works, he would project a photographic image onto a canvas and then trace its exact outlines. The artist would then recreate the original image's appearance using a carefully selected colour palette of various shades of white, black and grey. The final touch involved blurring the painting with a soft brush or squeegee, a technique that became a hallmark of his style in his Abstrakte Bilder of the 1980s and 1990s. This method remained consistent throughout his career, even as the subjects of his photo paintings evolved from portraits and landscapes to seascapes, candles and skulls.
The subject of the present lot, Karl-Heinz Hering, was a figure of profound significance not only in the artist’s life but in Düsseldorf's burgeoning art scene. Hering played a pivotal role in securing the city’s reputation as a major cultural centre and had a profound impact on Richter’s career, organising the artist’s first solo exhibition in West Germany in 1971. Through various initiatives, Hering also championed the careers of significant international artists, such as Jackson Pollock, Victor Vasarely and Rodney Doyle. This portrait distinguishes itself from the other works of this period due to its distinct approach. Unlike the signature blurriness that typically affects the entire image, here it is concentrated around the boundaries, leaving the sitter’s face relatively clear. The addition of expressive brushstrokes along the edges of the portrait mimics a frame, placing the sitter within it as if captured in a late 1960s printed photograph. This technique imparts a warm, nostalgic quality, reminiscent of a cherished photo of a close friend and mentor in a photo album. It evokes a sense of comfort and warmth, creating a lasting, emotionally resonant memory in a tangible form.
Richter's fascination with the interplay between photography and painting became a cornerstone of his practice during his studies in Düsseldorf where he settled in 1961. Inspired by the flourishing Pop Art movement, he saw in photography a mechanical, objective way to depict reality, devoid of personal artistic intervention, echoing Warhol’s approach. Richter was intrigued by photography’s role as a step removed from reality, a reproduction rather than a direct representation. He began cutting images from magazines and dissolving them with chemical solutions, a process that blurred their clarity and captured his interest in how images, much like memories, evolve over time. The blurriness that came to define these now-iconic works erased the boundaries between photography and painting, artist and camera.
Although his photorealistic style paralleled that of leading figures in American Pop Art, Richter’s intention was not to celebrate the superficial themes of mass production and consumer culture. Instead, his work delved into deeper, more contemplative subjects. Like his German contemporaries Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer, Richter also challenged the dominance of abstraction, responding to an era marked by significant struggles and disruptions. In a Europe still recovering from recent tragedies, there was a yearning for art with a deeper purpose — art that was more intimately connected to the realities of life.
