Gerhard Richter's Final Color Chart Painting to Highlight Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction

It was in 1966 when Gerhard Richter first developed the Color Chart concept. Over the following eight years, he developed a series of abstract paintings that depict a grid of various colors arranged in a systematic way, resembling a color chart or swatch. The series reflects Richter's interest in the relationship between representation and abstraction, as well as his ongoing exploration of the possibilities and limitations of painting as a medium.

Last October, Sotheby's offered the very earliest examples of Richter’s Color Chart paintings. In May, the last works from the series, 4096 Farben from 1974, will be offered as the highlight of the Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in New York. Kelsey Leonard, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in New York, noted that "this painting is all the more remarkable when viewed in person." Until the auction, 4096 Farben will be on view at Sotheby’s London franchise alongside other works to be offered.

The Seminal Color Chart series

Gerhard Richter's Color Chart series explores the concept of color as an object of artistic investigation, examining how color can be perceived, interpreted, and manipulated within the context of abstract art. The artist found inspiration in the color cards found in paint stores, thus describing the series as a "beautiful stroke of luck." Over the years, Richter made three sets of Color Chart paintings, characterized by their meticulous attention to color and composition, with each color carefully chosen and arranged in a systematic manner. As the final work in the series, 4096 Farben comprises the maximum of color variations; it consists of a grid of 64 squares, each containing 64 smaller squares, resulting in a total of 4,096 individual color squares.

The series served as an inspiration for an ambitious commission Richter received to create a stained-glass window at Cologne Cathedral, unveiled in 2007. This window is a splendid replica of 4096 Farben, spreading across eleven thousand squares of glass in 72 different colors.

The Sale of 4096 Farben

This work has a compelling exhibition history as the highlight of many of Richter’s significant retrospectives, including Gerhard Richter: Paintings, a 1988-1989, touring exhibition that was on view at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the SFMoMA, and Gerhard Richter: Panorama, presented at Tate Modern in London and the Staatliche Museen zu in Berlin from 2011-2012.

The artist returned to the series thirty years later and extended it with 4900 Farben in 2007, now held at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. 4096 Farben also adorns the cover of the artist’s recently published Catalogue Raisonné features.

The work comes to auction for the first time in nearly 20 years at Sotheby’s New York with an estimate of $18-25 million. The Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in New York will take place on May 18th, 2023. 

Featured image: Gerhard Richter - 4096 Farben, 1974. Image courtesy Sotheby's.