Presented by the Luma Foundation in Engadin, Switzerland, as part of Elevation 1049, STRIP TOWER (962) brings Gerhard Richter’s long-running investigations into the Alpine landscape, extending his practice beyond the canvas and into three-dimensional space. On view until the spring of 2029, the work draws from the methodology of his Strip Paintings, where a single painted gesture is subjected to successive acts of photographing, scanning, digital slicing, and stretching.  What begins as an analogue mark is transformed into a system of color bands governed by repetition and chance. In the tower, this process leaves the flat surface behind entirely, becoming architectural and spatial.

Rising over five meters, the sculpture, recently presented at Serpentine, London, consists of eight perpendicular panels clad in glazed ceramic tiles, each carrying vertically elongated color stripes. The intersecting panels allow people to walk between the surfaces, shifting the encounter from distant viewing to bodily experience. Light reflects off the glossy surfaces, while weather, cloud cover, snow, and seasonal shifts continuously recompose the work. 

all images by Luzi Seiler courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation, unless stated otherwise

STRIP TOWER (962): site, repetition, and slow looking

Richter’s relationship with Sils Maria stretches back decades. He first visited the village in 1989 and has returned regularly since, drawn to its distinctive light and contemplative atmosphere. Long associated with intellectual retreat and sustained reflection, the site offers a fitting context for a work that resists instant legibility. STRIP TOWER (962) encourages repeated visits and incremental perception, asking viewers to notice subtle variations rather than dramatic gestures.

The placement of the sculpture near Lake Silvaplana embeds it directly within the Alpine ecosystem. Its ceramic skin responds to moisture and temperature, while its colors shift under changing skies. The experience of the work unfolds over time, aligning with the German artist’s broader concerns with uncertainty, reflection, and the instability of visual certainty.

With this installation, the Luma Foundation tests how contemporary art can operate outside conventional exhibition formats, proposing the Alps as a landscape where artistic experimentation unfolds over time. Elevation 1049 will return to Gstaad and the Saanenland in 2027, curated by Mohamed Almusibli, but in the Engadin, Richter’s tower will remain, marking the landscape with color, light, and duration.

the work draws from the methodology of Gerhard Richter’s Strip Paintings

elevation 1049 and the alpine landscape as a thinking field

Since its inception in 2014, Elevation 1049 has approached the Alps as an intellectual and ecological field. Through site-responsive commissions, the initiative has explored the relationship between contemporary art and geography, climate, history, and local communities beyond institutional settings. The installation of STRIP TOWER (962) in the Engadin demonstrates how long-term artworks can foster sustained public engagement.

Maja Hoffmann, Founder and President of the Luma Foundation, frames the project as part of a broader commitment to situating significant artistic voices in contexts that demand attentiveness and responsibility. She describes the work as ‘a rare synthesis of conceptual rigor, formal clarity, and material precision,’ noting how its presence affirms the Alps as a site of serious cultural production rather than passive scenery.

Installed for an initial period of three years, STRIP TOWER (962) emphasizes art as a shared public experience unfolding gradually and in dialogue with place. Visitors can walk through the sculpture, pause within its interior, and return under different conditions, encountering a work that is both monumental and quietly responsive. Its scale does not overwhelm the landscape but frames it, inviting reflection on how perception itself is shaped by environment.

the sculpture consists of eight perpendicular panels clad in glazed ceramic tiles

light reflects off the glossy surfaces

sharpening attention to color, light, and movement | image courtesy of Elevation 1049

image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

the intersecting panels allow people to walk between the surfaces | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

shifting the encounter from distant viewing to bodily experience | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

seasonal shifts continuously recompose the work | image by Victor & Simon / Joana Luz, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation

colors shift under changing skies | image by Schaub Stierli, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation Fotografie

proposing the Alps as a landscape where artistic experimentation unfolds over time | image by Schaub Stierli, courtesy of Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung and Luma Foundation Fotografie

the site offers a fitting context for a work that resists instant legibility

the placement of the sculpture near Lake Silvaplana embeds it directly within the Alpine ecosystem

project info:

name: STRIP TOWER (962)

artist: Gerhard Richter

location: Via d’Lej, 7514 Sils Maria, Engadin, Switzerland

dates: January 27th, 2026 – Spring 2029

presented by: Luma Foundation | @luma_arles as part of Elevation 1049 | @elevation1049

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oscar wilde, a photo-realistic painting by gerhard richter, 1972
image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

photography, painting and installation… the work of contemporary german artist
gerhard richter contains elements of all three. 48 portraits (1971/72) is a series of
paintings that were first shown in the german pavilion at the venice biennial in 1972.

image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

richter presented these portraits, hung in a line, all at the same level,
and ordered according to the position of the head, with a sequence of
gazes that fanned out from the centre to the left and right.

image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

these painterly images, based on the black and white reproductions
in encyclopaedias, came out after having excluded pictures of artists,
women and politicians from a selection of 288 original photographs
chosen by richter for another, previous work.

image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

grayness pervades everything. the grayness of gerhard richter’s work
is instructive, and distressing. the moments are not false but the records
are falsifications that inherently disregard what came before and what
came after. richter evolved a method of unpainting, which meant
painting a scene based on a photograph, black and white, and then
brushing to blur the images.

image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

they are whole, basically untouched, accepted icons of history.
by obscuring the identities of the people depicted and questioning
the relationships between them, richter’s portraits provide a fascinating
insight into the way we view the world.

image courtesy de pont museum of contemporary art

the work is on loan from museum ludwig in cologne,
from april 2008 through may 2009, in exchange for the de pont’s hermes
trismegistos by sigmar polke, which is on view in cologne during that period.

german artist gerhard richter was born in dresden in 1932.
since the early 1960s he has tirelessly explored the medium
of painting at a time when many were heralding its death.
he has produced a remarkably varied body of work, including
photography-based portrait, landscape and still-life paintings;
gestural and monochrome abstractions; and color chart grid paintings.

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