Gerhard Richter & Sigmar Polke exhibited at Christie's

London - On 24 April 2025 Christie’s Mayfair opened Polke/Richter-Richter/Polke, celebrating two giants of painting: Gerhard Richter (b.1932) and Sigmar Polke (1941-2010).

The event brings together 65 works from 30 collections to create the artists’ first joint show in almost 50 years, since their now legendary 1966 exhibition at Galerie h in Hanover.

Francis Outred, Christie’s Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe, says: “Richter and Polke are the dynamic duo of German painting in the past 50 years. They became friends in the early ’60s, seeking to reinvent painting by deconstructing it, mixing all the pieces together and putting it back together again to open up new possibilities, as witnessed in their landmark 1966 two-man show, Richter/Polke. We take this 1966 exhibition as a starting point for charting their work in the ensuing decades. While their friendship waned and they developed in different directions - Richter stayed close to home in Cologne, Polke wandered the world - both remained true to their shared belief in painting as an essential medium. Despite their divergent paths, their art and ideas overlap in interesting ways”.

Polke/Richter-Richter/Polke is co-curated by Christie’s specialist Darren Leak and collector, curator and writer Kenny Schachter.

Christie’s Darren Leak says: “This exhibition re-visits the initial close friendship between the two artists and includes two key works from the original 1966 show. Soon after that historic exhibition, Richter and Polke sped off into wildly different directions, like the poles of two magnets pushed against each other. Richter took a more classical route, Polke a more cosmic”.

Gerhard Richter commented on their friendship and later rivalry: “I remember how close this friendship was, but also how tough it sometimes was…In retrospect I’m amazed it was so brutal. We were very unsure of ourselves, and each tried to cover this up in his own way. I can only say that that’s the way it was. Polke drifted away into the psychedelic direction and I into the classical”.