The recent publication of Citi Private Bank Art Advisory & Finance, an always worthwhile newsletter called Art Focus, just profiled the German artist, Gerhard Richter. After riffing on the intense demand for Contemporary, Modern and Impressionist masterpieces of the last few years, Citigroup‘s (C) Senior Art Advisor Jonathan Binstock states, “among the postwar artists fueling this recharge is the German painter Gerhard Richter, who has recently emerged powerfully as the next great market force among the tradition of 20th century painters including Pablo Picasso, William de Kooning and Andy Warhol.”

That’s quite a bold claim. Richter is the prolific 80 year-old artist who was born in Dresden in 1932, and in October 2011 had a major retrospective at the Tate Modern in London open, coupled with a number of works coming up for sale at auction the same month. His huge output over the decades is impressive, and, if there is any theme, it’s his use of photography as the basis for classic paintings. His works of the laid out body of Ulrike Meinhof in the “Baader-Meinhof” series of the 1980s, or even his “Administrative Building” of the “Buildings” series of the same era, are rooted in a strong political worldview. Conversely, his “Apples” or “Candles” paintings are imbued with spiritual elegance and serenity; his abstract paintings are noted for their “overwhelming wall power.” No question, Richter is a major artist of the late 20th century.

But is he an artist who should be ranked with Picasso and de Kooning? Binstock’s bullishness is based on the authenticity of Richter’s work (a classic painter who doesn’t use assistants or shortcut technologies), and the recent run-up in Richter prices, most notably during the October and November auctions in 2011. “Richter has been besting himself regularly at many auction levels since the heights of 2007 and 2008. In the past five years his auction price has approximately quadrupled.”

In February 2007, a record of $5.5 million was reached for the Richter work, Abstraktes Bild (1991). Binstock now says that same work “might be valued around $12 million. Between February 2007 and November 2011, Richter achieved no less than five record prices at auction, making a steeply escalating tear through the Great Recession that seems unrivaled by any other artists.” That is impressive. Even his smaller works, in the hard hit mid market of the $1 million to $5 million range, are “defying gravity in more ways than one.”