"Orchid III"

offset print on deckle edge paper

marked, signed, and dated „Druckprobe, Richter, 1998“ at bottom

The series of works "Orchidee I-V" by Gerhard Richter was created in 1998 and can be seen as an example of Richter's repeatedly taken up theme of the reproduction of a subject by various means and the resulting altered mode of action and alienation. A photograph of an orchid by the artist served as the model for an oil painting of the same motif, which was created in 1997 and in a second step was photographed by the artist.
The photorealistic painting with its delicate, pastel-coloured brushstrokes thus re-entered the original sphere of digital photography. The Edition Orchidee shows precisely this photography, each time in different image details, image and paper dimensions, and montages, for example between Plexiglas panes or in a passe-partout, which Richter differentiated with the Roman numbers I to V in order to show different pictorial effects and variations of one and the same motif. He also achieved this effect with Orchids III-V by using a different paper for offset printing for each sheet of the respective edition, which, depending on its composition, brought different pictorial qualities to the fore and gave all sheets a unique character.
In the work shown here, Orchidee III, which was produced before the normal edition of 17 copies as one of three print samples, Gerhard Richter gave the sheet the illusion of a pastel drawing. The delicate, slightly rough handmade paper gives the viewer the feeling that he is not looking at the print of a photograph, but at a painted work, which radiates a strong meditative calm, harmony and power.
(Gallery Schwarzer, Düsseldorf 2015)