I was fortunate to acquire this Reginald Gray at Auction here in Dublin. This Oil on Board 'Looking at Gerhard Richter's Confrontation 3 Gudrun Ensslin' has excited many Art experts and Historians that i engaged with today due to the Gray's excellent message in this Superb Painting.
Reginald Gray was an Irish portrait artist. He studied at The National College of Art (1953) and then moved to London, becoming part of the School of London led by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach. In 1960, he painted a portrait of Bacon which now hangs in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. Reginald Gray's art is very distinctive, becoming very sought after and his association with Bacon and Freud suggests a possible/probable excellent investment.
In this painting the artist is paying homage to the noted German artist Gerhardt Richter (Born 1932). During the late 1980s Richter filled scrapbooks with black and white photographs from newspapers and journals. These photographs became the basis for many of Richter’s black and white paintings dealing with social and political issues. Gray has depicted a visitor to a Richter exhibition examining the artist’s portrait of Gudrun Ensslin a founder member of the Baader-Meinhof gang. The painted portrait is a photo painting typical of Richter’s style. Gray has imitated Richter’s approach in using tones of black and white throughout the work except for application of colour on the gallery visitor’s head. This shows Gray’s versatility in successfully adopting the style of another artist.
Frame Size Width 24.5" (63cm) Height 28.5 (72.5cm)
Painting Sizw Width 19.75" (50cm) Height 23.75" (60cm)
Item Sold