Biography

Gerhard Richter is one of the most important German (and international) contemporary artists. He was born in Dresden in 1932 and studied at the art academy there from 1951 to 1956. After moving to West Germany, he studied again at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1961 to 1963; He taught there from 1971. Starting from the problem of socialist realism, he asks what painting can be in today's media-determined societies. He makes the imagery the theme of his pictures.

Richter doesn't just pursue a single concept. Rather, he maintains several fields of activity that have existed peacefully side by side for decades. First of all, there are his works based on photographs, his abstract pictures (often as painterly designs based on chance), which have dominated his work since 1976. There are also his conceptual works, such as the large (200x200 cm) “1024 Colors” from 1974 or the “Gray” pictures, which create a spatial relationship with the viewer through their shiny surface. Also worth mentioning are the “paintings” in brown and gray, which combine sensual and conceptual properties. There are also figurative works such as the candle pictures.

Richter quotes and reconstructs in his works. His famous painting “Ema,” now in the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, shows a female nude descending a staircase. This is a direct reference to Marcel Duchamp’s “Nu, descendant un escalier”. Other of his photo-based works also refer to historical models, also because they are slightly blurred - a reference to Julia Margaret Cameron. In some works he uses art historical reconstruction, such as in the candle paintings. Although they refer to the rich and diverse motific tradition of the candle in European painting, they are reconstructive because they do not have a specific model, so they do not quote. But they probably have a common source, a lithograph by Honoré Daumier showing an artist who had just been rejected by the Salon. He points to his “masterpiece,” which he believes the jury has proven to be a gathering of fools by rejecting. It shows a burning candle.

Richter puts the rather dead motif of the candle back into the context of contemporary art. This is the reconstruction of a historical complex. (1) Richter also reconstructs his seascapes and cloud paintings. This theme, as the main motif of a picture, emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (e.g. with Alexander Cozens), and, by revisiting it, Richter presents himself as a fascinated reconstructor of the 19th century art that he transformed into very contemporary images. This also shows the continuity of artistic endeavor, something that Richter obviously understands very well.

The abstract works caused a great stir when they were shown in a major exhibition at the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle in 1986. At the time, everyone believed that abstraction was dying, and Richter came along and proved otherwise. His abstract picture elements have structural form, which are placed against purely informal parts of the pictures and outline the surface structures of certain color fields. Some of his abstractions seem “closed”, they deny the viewer access and leave them on the outside in front of a lively colored surface. Others create an image space of enormous depth that is available to the viewer to explore.

With these works, Richter shows through relentless research what painting can be, namely the complexity of reality, which is largely also that of painting.

(1) See Gerhard Charles Rump: Reconstructions. Positions of contemporary art. Berlin 2010, pp. 105-107

Museum and single exhibitions (selection)

2024

Gerhard Richter. Verborgene Schätze. Werke aus rheinischen Privatsammlungen, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Gerhard Richter. 100 Werke für Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie

Gerhard Richter: Verborgene Schätze Werke Aus Rheinischen Privatsammlungen, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany

2023

Gerhard Richter: Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan

Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany

2022

Gerhard Richter, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota Aichi, Japan

2021

Gerhard Richter: Birkenau-Paintings, Drawings, Overpainted Photographs, K21, Dusseldorf, Germany

2020

Gerhard Richter. Grauer Spiegel, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Köln

2018

Gerhard Richter. Abstraktion, Museum Barberini, Potsdam

2016

Birkenau, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden

... and there was time, Centro de Artes Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spanien

Cézanne bis Richter: Meisterwerke aus dem Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Schweiz

2015

Deutsche Kunst Nach 1960, Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Österreich

Neupräsentation im Albertinum, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Dresden

Gerhard Richter: Neupräsentation im Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Land in Sicht, Weserburg - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen

Verzweigt: Bäume in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, ALTANA Kulturstiftung Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg v.d.H.

Arbeiten auf Papier aus der Sammlung Frieder Burda, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin

2014

Variations: Abstract Painting today, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Bilderwahl! Monolithic Water, Kunsthaus Zürich

2014

Gerhard Richter, Ausschnitt. Werke aus der Sammlung Böckmann, Neues Museum in Nürnberg, Nürnberg

40 | 10 Bilderwechsel, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden

Ausweitung der Kampfzone. 1968-2000. Die Sammlung Teil 3, Neue Nationalgalerie, Kulturforum, Berlin

Collection on Display, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

40 Jahre Sammlung / 10 Jahre Museum Frieder Burda, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden

Non basta ricordare. Collezione MAXXI, MAXXI_Museo Nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rom

Zwischen Foto und Druck: Grafik von Andy Warhol bis Gerhard Richter, Museum Folkwang, Essen

Gerhard Richter, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Schweiz

2013

Gerhard Richter: Post-war drawings and prints, The British Museum, London

Gerhard Richter, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, SchweizKunst & Textil - Stoff als Material und Idee in der Moderne von Klimt bis heute, bis 22.06.2014, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Gerhard Richter-Die Kunst im Plural, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf

2012

Gerhard Richter: Panorama, Musée national d\'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Gerhard Richter. Dessins et travaux sur papier, Musée du Louvre, ParisGerhard Richter, 27.04.2012 - 16.06.2012, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Libanon