Sils

D.A.P., 2002 edition. Hardcover. 86 pages. 16 x 11,5 cm. Text in English, German and French. Used. VG · Cover shows minor signs of wear.

This book is named after the Swiss village of the same name, which he visited regularly for many years. Richter has approached the Sils landscape from various angles with series of overpainted photographs. The photographs are mostly arranged as pairs, and are taken in different places within the region. 

Designed by Gerhard Richter, includes photographs taken and subsequently painted by the artist, together with texts by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Peter Andre Bloch. The book was first published in 1992 on the occasion of a Gerhard Richter exhibition at Nietzsche-Haus in Sils, and has been reprinted in 2002, this copy, and in 2009.

’(…) In the repainted photos, levels of reality in photography are conjoined to levels of reality in painting, whereby the concepts of the realistic (with respect to the photographic level of depiction) and the abstract (with respect to the non-representational repainting) turn out to be redundant due to the dissolution of categories immanent to panting. The reflection on the genuine and the counterfeit (…)’

A perfect intimate artist’s book.