The painting Kitchen Chair depicts a simple wooden chair stood in front of a light-coloured wall. The dark floor contrasts against the wall, upon which a strong light from the right-hand side casts the chair's shadow.

Kitchen Chair is the first of three paintings Richter produced in 1965 depicting chairs [CR: 97–99]. The source photograph of the painting was taken by Richter himself: "This was a chair I owned and photographed. It was part of my search for banal objects – the chair itself, the table, the toilet roll. Although the great majority of the photo-paintings are based on photos which came from outside sources, this was one I took myself."¹

The original square-format photograph (included in Atlas [Sheet: 11], Richter's collection of source images) shows that the chair is located next to a door, a details that Richter omitted in the painting. Whereas in the source image the chair is lit by a beam of light, contrasting against its dark surroundings, in the painting the light colours of the wall dominate.

The painting Kitchen Chair joins other early works by the artist that take banal everyday objects as subjects, in the tradition of Pop Art. Painting after models, as Richter does in Folding Dryer [CR: 4], Toilet Paper [CR: 75/1-3] and Small Chair [CR: 99], restricts the artist's creative process and therefore moves the focus onto the painterly quality of the pictures.

¹ Comments on some works, 1991 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p.261/262.

Notes prepared by editorial team