Gerhard Richter’s ‘Strip Tower’ rises in the Engadin

Now on view in Sils Maria, Engadin, Gerhard Richter’s Strip Tower (962) marks a rare moment where painting, sculpture, and landscape converge. Presented by the Luma Foundation as part of Elevation 1049, the monumental work will remain on view at Lake Silvaplana until Spring 2029, inviting visitors into a slow, immersive encounter with colour, perception, and time.

Installed against the crystalline backdrop of the Alps, Strip Tower translates Richter’s rigorous abstract language into architectural form. Rising over five metres, the sculpture stands as a quiet yet resolute presence—less a landmark than an experience to be entered.

Gerhard Richter’s Strip Paintings’: from canvas to space

Strip Tower is a three-dimensional extension of Gerhard Richter Strip Paintings, a body of work the artist began developing in 2010 through digital manipulation and systematic repetition. In the sculpture, eight interlocking vertical panels clad in vividly striped ceramic tiles form a cross-shaped interior that visitors can step inside. Colour shifts with movement, light, and weather, transforming abstraction into a spatial, bodily experience.

True to Richter’s long-standing tension between chance and control, the work gives structure to unpredictability. The stripes resist narrative and symbolism, instead foregrounding rhythm, optical vibration, and duration—qualities that echo throughout his painted practice.

Elevation 1049: art in dialogue with the Alps

Presented as part of Elevation 1049, the Luma Foundation’s ongoing initiative dedicated to site-responsive works in Alpine contexts, Strip Tower engages directly with its environment without overpowering it. Installed at Lake Silvaplana, the sculpture responds to changing light and climate, establishing a dialogue between contemporary abstraction and the elemental clarity of the Engadin landscape.