Andrew Lambirth

Colour charts

Gerhard Richter: 4900 Colours <br /> <em>Serpentine Gallery, until 16 November</em> Lucian Freud: Early Works, 1940–58<br /> <em>Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, 38 Bury Street, London SW1, until 12 December</em>

issue 18 October 2008

Gerhard Richter: 4900 Colours
Serpentine Gallery, until 16 November

Lucian Freud: Early Works, 1940–58
Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, 38 Bury Street, London SW1, until 12 December

At the Serpentine is an exhibition of little squares of colour, randomly arranged in grids. There are 49 paintings on show, each one composed of four panels consisting of 25 squares each. They are painted in enamel on something synthetic called Aludibond, on boards or plates attached directly to the wall. The colour combinations are selected by chance through a specially developed computer programme, and the initial idea for the work was sparked by the industrial colour charts produced by paint manufacturers. Gerhard Richter (born 1932) has been making paintings based on colour charts since 1966, and, after a lot of trying, he has finally sold the idea to a credulous world.

It seems that Richter himself has a high estimation of these pictures.

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