Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter
1932

Fuji. 1996.
Oil on Alucobond.
Signed and with the edition label inscribed with the work number “839/54” on the reverse. 29 x 37 cm (11.4 x 14.5 in).
Part of the famous eponymous series that Richter created for the exhibition of the same name at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich. These works were sold immediately after the exhibition through Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich. Richter created the paintings in the “Fuji” series partly in portrait and partly in landscape format, each as a unique piece using the same color composition. Each painting differs not only in the proportions of its color components but also in its highly variable color gradients, created with the squeegee. [JS].

• HIGHLIGHT: From his mature “Abstract Paintings”, which solely feature the squeegee as the dominant element.
• CALCULATION & CHANCE: Richter as the creator of a radically new painterly aesthetic.
• MAXIMUM PERFECTION: The “Fuji” series celebrates the dawn of Richter’s iconic squeegee technique.
• EXHIBITED: Created for the eponymous exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich.
• HONORS: Retrospectives at, among others, MoMA, New York (2002); the Tate, London (2013/14); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2020); and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2025/26).

PROVENANCE: Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (directly from the artist).
Galerie Leidel, Munich.
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above in 2014).

EXHIBITION: Gerhard Richter, Fuji, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1997.

LITERATURE: Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5: 1994–2006 (nos. 806–899–8), Berlin 2019, CR no. 839–54 (illustrated top left in the second studio photo on p. 209 alongside other paintings from the series).
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(selection)
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Cologne 2002, p. 335.
Gerhard Richter, exhibition catalog K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2005 (with illustration; two other paintings from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert, and Philipp Olbricht (eds.), Gerhard Richter. Editions 1965–2013. Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern 2014, cat. no. 89, p. 260 (with illustration, pp. 44 and 260, another painting from the series).
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Tokyo 2017, illu. on p. 270 (another painting from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Gerhard Richter. Unikate in Serie / Unique Pieces in Series, Cologne 2017, pp. 132, 136 (with illu. on pp. 138–139, two other paintings from the series).
Kerstin Küster, Color and Layering. Abstract Paintings 1986–2005, in: Gerhard Richter. Abstraction, exhibition catalog, Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2018, p. 173.

"Continuing its tradition of landmark monographic exhibitions devoted to leading figures of 20th and 21st-century art – including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Hockney – the Fondation [Louis Vuitton] dedicates all its galleries to Gerhard Richter, widely regarded as one of the most important and internationally celebrated artists of his generation."
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, on the exhibition "Gerhard Richter" (Oct. 2025 to March 2026), https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/gerhard-richter-exhibition.