Gerhard Richter is a German painter and visual artist born in 1932, considered one of the most important living artists. His work oscillates between blurred photo-painting and radical abstraction, ceaselessly questioning the relationships between painting, photography and memory.
Gerhard Richter(1932 — ?)
Gerhard Richter
Allemagne
6 min read
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Painting is another form of thinking.»
Key Facts
- Born on 9 February 1932 in Dresden, Germany
- Fled East Germany (the GDR) for West Germany in 1961, just before the Berlin Wall was built
- From the 1960s onward developed his photo-painting technique (blurred paintings based on photographs)
- Created the cycle “18 October 1977” in 1988 about the Baader-Meinhof gang (the Red Army Faction)
- Designed in 2007 the abstract stained-glass window of Cologne Cathedral, made up of thousands of colored squares
Works & Achievements
A blurred portrait painted from a family photo, showing the artist as a baby with his aunt, a victim of the Nazi “euthanasia” program. The work ties intimate history to German history.
A blurred painting of a woman walking down a staircase, in dialogue with Duchamp. It proves that painting can rival photography.
A series of 48 portraits of famous men (writers, scholars, composers) painted in grey from encyclopedias, presented at the Venice Biennale.
A cycle of 15 grey, blurred paintings about the deaths of members of the Red Army Faction. A deeply moving reflection on political violence and memory.
A vast series of abstract canvases made with a squeegee, in layered coats. They embody his search for chance and pure color.
An immense abstract stained-glass window of 11,500 squares of colored glass, partly arranged by random draw. It replaces a window destroyed during the war.
A cycle of four large abstract paintings inspired by clandestine photos taken at Auschwitz. Here Richter confronts the impossibility of directly depicting the Holocaust.
Anecdotes
In February 1945, the young Gerhard Richter, aged 13, watched from afar as Dresden went up in flames under Allied bombing. This destruction of his hometown would leave a lasting mark on his relationship to the image, to memory, and to catastrophe.
In 1961, just before the construction of the Berlin Wall, Richter fled East Germany to cross over to the West. He left behind almost all of his early works, considering that his true career began in Düsseldorf, where he studied under Joseph Beuys.
Many of his paintings look blurry, like a botched photograph. Richter first paints the image very sharply, then drags a wide dry brush across the still-wet paint to smear it: this deliberate blur questions what we think we “see” in a photo.
In 2007, Richter designed a stained-glass window for Cologne Cathedral, which had been badly damaged during the war. Instead of holy figures, he arranged 11,500 squares of colored glass whose layout was partly decided by chance, blending randomness and calculation.
In 2012, his abstract painting “Abstraktes Bild” sold for more than 34 million dollars, making him one of the most expensive living artists in the world — a paradox for a painter who distrusts certainties and the art market.
Primary Sources
“I pursue no intentions, no system, no tendency. I have no program, no style, no concern.”
“The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style.”
“The deaths of these terrorists deeply disturbed me. I could not, and did not want to, explain it; I only wanted to paint it.”
“Abstract paintings are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can nonetheless infer.”
Key Places
Richter's birthplace, destroyed by the bombings of 1945. There he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts under the East German regime.
After fleeing East Germany, Richter studied and then taught at the Academy of Fine Arts there. It was there that he invented his photo-painting.
The city where Richter set up his studio and lived for many years. There he created the famous abstract stained-glass window of the cathedral in 2007.
A Gothic building for which Richter designed in 2007 a stained-glass window made of 11,500 squares of coloured glass, blending chance and geometry.
The capital whose wall, built in 1961, separated the two Germanys. Richter crossed to the West just before it closed.
