GERHARD RICHTER:

ENGADIN

16 DECEMBER 2023 – 13 APRIL 2024

                                    

cura­ted by Die­ter Schwarz

NIETZSCHE-HAUS | SEGANTINI MUSEUM | HAUSER & WIRTH ST. MORITZ

 

 

Ger­hard Rich­ter, born in 1932, is one of the most important and cele­bra­ted artists of our time. His works can be found in inter­na­tio­nal collec­tions and have been exhi­bi­ted in nume­rous muse­ums and gal­le­ries in Euro­pe and the United Sta­tes. Rich­ter first vaca­tio­ned in the Swiss Alpi­ne vil­la­ge Sils, loca­ted in the Upper Enga­din regi­on, in 1989 and has regu­lar­ly visi­ted the loca­ti­on during both sum­mer and win­ter holi­days for over 25 years. Pre­sen­ted across three venues in the Upper Enga­din – Nietz­sche-Haus in Sils and the Segan­ti­ni Muse­um and Hau­ser & Wirth in St. Moritz – ‘Ger­hard Rich­ter: Enga­din’ is the first exhi­bi­ti­on to explo­re Richter’s deep con­nec­tion with the Alpi­ne val­ley land­s­cape. More than seven­ty works from muse­ums and pri­va­te collec­tions – inclu­ding pain­tings, over­pain­ted pho­to­graphs, drawings and objects – are tes­ta­ment to the artist’s fasci­na­ti­on with the Upper Enga­din valley.

The work con­nec­ting the three exhi­bi­ti­on venues is a steel sphe­re that Rich­ter had pro­du­ced as an edi­ti­on, on view at each site. He first pre­sen­ted it at Nietz­sche-Haus in 1992, in an exhi­bi­ti­on cura­ted by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Each uni­que sphe­re bears the name of a moun­tain in the Upper Enga­din. The mat­te, sub­t­ly reflec­ti­ve, almost sur­re­al sphe­re deli­ca­te­ly reflects all that sur­rounds it. It sym­bo­li­ses the sub­li­me yet inhos­pi­ta­ble mani­fes­ta­ti­ons of natu­re, which are espe­cial­ly con­spi­cuous in the mountains.

On view at the Segan­ti­ni Muse­um and Hau­ser & Wirth are pain­tings that Rich­ter crea­ted from pho­to­graphs taken during his hikes in the Upper Enga­din. The­se works mark a new chap­ter in his land­s­cape pain­ting – a gen­re that had always appealed to him for its sup­po­sed unti­me­li­ness. Richter’s Enga­din land­s­capes are exem­pla­ry of the ambi­gui­ty in his pain­ting, oscil­la­ting bet­ween a seduc­ti­ve trans­fi­gu­ra­ti­on of natu­re and a reflec­tion of its ali­en­ness. Par­ti­cu­lar­ly note­wor­thy is the pain­ting ‘Was­ser­fall (Water­fall)’ (1997) from Kunst Muse­um Win­ter­thur, a work that clear­ly traces Richter’s enga­ge­ment with 19th-cen­tu­ry pain­ting, from roman­ti­cism to rea­lism. The artist later over­pain­ted some of the Enga­din motifs, inclu­ding depic­tions of Piz Mat­er­dell and Lake Sils, trans­forming them into abs­tract pain­tings with a melan­cho­lic atmo­s­phe­re that responds to impres­si­ons of the landscape.

The pho­to­graphs Rich­ter brought back from the Upper Enga­din not only ser­ved as tem­pla­tes for his pain­tings, but also beca­me can­va­ses for his expe­ri­ments with oil and lac­quer paint. Rich­ter enjoy­ed accen­tua­ting the pho­to­gra­phic images with deli­ca­te traces of colour, dis­rup­t­ing them with stains and splat­ters, or using paint and a squee­gee to cover them almost ent­i­re­ly. This pro­cess allo­wed him to estab­lish con­ta­ct bet­ween the image and the paint, brin­ging them clo­ser tog­e­ther or even allowing them to col­li­de. More than fif­ty of the­se allu­ring small-sca­le works can be seen at the two exhi­bi­ti­on venues in St. Moritz. Rich­ter first intro­du­ced this new chap­ter in his oeu­vre during the afo­re­men­tio­ned exhi­bi­ti­on at Nietz­sche-Haus, which essen­ti­al­ly ser­ved as a tri­al run. Some of the first over­pain­ted pho­to­graphs appe­ar in the artist’s book ‘Sils’ (1992) that was publis­hed on the occa­si­on of the show. The maquet­te for this publi­ca­ti­on, desi­gned by Rich­ter hims­elf, is on view at Hau­ser & Wirth.

Final­ly, Nietz­sche-Haus hosts an exhi­bi­ti­on of 39 pho­to­graphs Rich­ter took in Sils for ‘Dezem­ber (Decem­ber)’ – a book he col­la­bo­ra­ted on with the wri­ter and filmma­ker Alex­an­der Klu­ge and publis­hed with Suhr­kamp in 2010. Richter’s pho­to­graphs of snow-cove­r­ed fir trees ser­ve as silent com­pa­n­ions to Kluge’s texts, which focus on signi­fi­cant his­to­ri­cal events.