Gerhard Richter

Self Portrait Standing, Three Times, 17.3.1991

1991

Not on display

Artist: Gerhard Richter born 1932
Medium: 6 photographs, gelatin silver print on paper with oil paint
Dimensions: Support, each: 504 × 564 mm
frame: 671 × 726 × 26 mm
Collection: ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland
Acquisition: ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
Reference: AR00182

Online caption

As well as painting canvases based on photographic images since 1989, Richter has also painted actual photographs to create works. In doing so, he has emphasised the surface reality of the pain interacting with the forms in the photographs. In this serial work, Richter has used six identical prints of a photograph, which consists of a triple exposure of the artist standing in his studio. On each successive print, he applied more and more paint using a squeegee and a brush, so that the final work disappears completely, as does his studio. Only paint remains – perhaps representing the artist’s notorious unwillingness to reveal himself.