1999.261, Sphere I (Kugel I), 1989, polished steel


GENERAL DESCRIPTION  
This orb exemplifies Gerhard Richter’s inquiry into the way our vision and understanding (of art and the world) operates, and the way they can be affected by the visual information put before us. This perfect polished steel sphere mirrors space, yet distorts the world it reflects. In the highly reflective globe, space is turned inside out rather than receding into a single vanishing point.

Adapted from
Charles Wylie, Celebrating Sculpture: Modern and Contemporary Works from Dallas Collections, 2003.

NOTES
  • updated provenance and geo x refs
  • add to TMS: Gerhard Richter's art deals with perception, imagery, and meaning, and takes an extremely broad range of forms in doing so. Richter began to create his mature work in the early 1960s after moving to Düsseldorf from East Germany, taking part in the fertile atmosphere of that city's art academy, a center of the post-World War II avant-garde. At first adapting the ideas of American pop art alongside his colleagues Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg (later Fischer), Richter expanded his painted adaptations of family shapshots and other "low" images to embrace a vast range of art-making strategies that mirrored, but did not duplicate, minimalism, conceptualism, photography, and abstraction. In spite of their diversity, Richter's paintings, prints, photographs, and editioned works can all be seen as an investigation into the mechanics and meanings of art. 
  • Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Sphere I (Kugel I) (1999.261)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 312.
  • Gerhard Richter's art deals with perception, imagery, and meaning, and takes an extremely broad range of forms in doing so. Richter began to create his mature work in the early 1960s after moving to Düsseldorf from East Germany, taking part in the fertile atmosphere of that city's art academy, a center of the post-World War II avant-garde. At first adapting the ideas of American pop art alongside his colleagues Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg (later Fischer), Richter expanded his painted adaptations of family shapshots and other "low" images to embrace a vast range of art-making strategies that mirrored, but did not duplicate, minimalism, conceptualism, photography, and abstraction. In spite of their diversity, Richter's paintings, prints, photographs, and editioned works can all be seen as an investigation into the mechanics and meanings of art.  Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Sphere I (Kugel I) (1999.261)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 312.

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Cultures

Geography 

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS 

PROVENANCE 
Until 1999: Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London, England

From 1999: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art League Fund, Roberta Coke Camp Fund, General Acquisitions Fund, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, and the Contemporary Art Fund: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon E. Faulconer, Mr. and Mrs. Bryant M. Hanley, Jr., Marguerite and Robert K. Hoffman, Howard E. Rachofsky, Deedie and Rusty Rose, Gayle and Paul Stoffel, and two anonymous donors, purchased from above.

AUDIO ASSETS 

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES 

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS
  • The DMA is the only public or private collection to house Richter's complete work in editions from 1965 to the present.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1999.261

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General Description
 
This orb exemplifies Gerhard Richter’s inquiry into the way our vision and understanding (of art and the world) operates, and the way they can be affected by the visual information put before us. This perfect polished steel sphere mirrors space, yet distorts the world it reflects. In the highly reflective globe, space is turned inside out rather than receding into a single vanishing point.

Adapted from
Charles Wylie, Celebrating Sculpture: Modern and Contemporary Works from Dallas Collections, 2003.

Fun Facts
  • The DMA is the only public or private collection to house Richter's complete work in editions from 1965 to the present.

Archival Resources

Web Resources
 

Notes
  • updated provenance and geo x refs
  • add to TMS: Gerhard Richter's art deals with perception, imagery, and meaning, and takes an extremely broad range of forms in doing so. Richter began to create his mature work in the early 1960s after moving to Düsseldorf from East Germany, taking part in the fertile atmosphere of that city's art academy, a center of the post-World War II avant-garde. At first adapting the ideas of American pop art alongside his colleagues Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg (later Fischer), Richter expanded his painted adaptations of family shapshots and other "low" images to embrace a vast range of art-making strategies that mirrored, but did not duplicate, minimalism, conceptualism, photography, and abstraction. In spite of their diversity, Richter's paintings, prints, photographs, and editioned works can all be seen as an investigation into the mechanics and meanings of art. 
  • Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Sphere I (Kugel I) (1999.261)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 312.
  • Gerhard Richter's art deals with perception, imagery, and meaning, and takes an extremely broad range of forms in doing so. Richter began to create his mature work in the early 1960s after moving to Düsseldorf from East Germany, taking part in the fertile atmosphere of that city's art academy, a center of the post-World War II avant-garde. At first adapting the ideas of American pop art alongside his colleagues Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg (later Fischer), Richter expanded his painted adaptations of family shapshots and other "low" images to embrace a vast range of art-making strategies that mirrored, but did not duplicate, minimalism, conceptualism, photography, and abstraction. In spite of their diversity, Richter's paintings, prints, photographs, and editioned works can all be seen as an investigation into the mechanics and meanings of art.  Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Sphere I (Kugel I) (1999.261)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 312.

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Cultures

Geography 

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS 

PROVENANCE 
Until 1999: Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London, England

From 1999: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art League Fund, Roberta Coke Camp Fund, General Acquisitions Fund, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, and the Contemporary Art Fund: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon E. Faulconer, Mr. and Mrs. Bryant M. Hanley, Jr., Marguerite and Robert K. Hoffman, Howard E. Rachofsky, Deedie and Rusty Rose, Gayle and Paul Stoffel, and two anonymous donors, purchased from above.

AUDIO ASSETS 

VIDEO ASSETS

rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1999.261
tags
#draft
#completed
%copyedited_Gail
@Bowling
sculpture: AAT: 300047090
%Archived
*Contemporary Art
steel (alloy): AAT: 300133751
Conceptual (style): AAT: 300264827
conceptual: AAT: 300264827
circles (plane figures): AAT: 300055627
shiny (shine): AAT: 300065244
reflectivity (optical property): AAT: 300056322
Richter_Gerhard: ULAN: 500003003
silver (color): AAT: 300311368
orbs: AAT: 300211999
source file
object_notes_3_a-0335.xml.nores