Painting, photography and digital reproduction unite in Gerhard Richter’s new sculpture on the plinth at Serpentine South.
The striped Strip-Tower nods to the German artist’s 2010 Strip Paintings, which themselves looked back to Abstract Painting 724-4, a painting created in 1990 that was then photographed. The resulting images were manipulated digitally on a software programme, before being divided into strips, which were stretched and laminated onto aluminium, and covered with Perspex.
Here, Richter revisits this mixed-media approach, casting striped ceramic tiles on panels in a cross-section that invites visitors inside in a play on patterns, repetition and reflection. The work forms the latest project in the Serpentine’s long-standing partnership with The Royal Parks to install public artworks in the public green havens.
‘This is a coda to the acclaimed Richter exhibition we hosted here at Serpentine South in 2008, titled “4900 Colours”,’ say Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. ‘Strip-Tower is a three-dimensional manifestation of themes and methods that underpin Richter’s historic practice in painting, repetition, improvisation and chance and we are grateful to the artist, The Royal Parks and all our partners – specifically HENI – for this spectacular opportunity to build new connections between artists and audiences.’
'Strip-Tower' is at Serpentine South from 25 April – 27 October 2024
-
Put these emerging artists on your radarThis crop of six new talents is poised to shake up the art world. Get to know them now
-
Dining at Pyrá feels like a Mediterranean kiss on both cheeksDesigned by House of Dré, this Lonsdale Road addition dishes up an enticing fusion of Greek and Spanish cooking
-
Creased, crumpled: S/S 2025 menswear is about clothes that have ‘lived a life’The S/S 2025 menswear collections see designers embrace the creased and the crumpled, conjuring a mood of laidback languor that ran through the season – captured here by photographer Steve Harnacke and stylist Nicola Neri for Wallpaper*
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experienceIn ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate BritainIn his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
