Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter (*1932) is an exceptional personality - not because his pictures are world famous, but because he has demonstrated a new approach to painting. His art masterfully moves between abstraction and representation, sensuousness and denial - ambivalent attitudes which he demonstrated even in his early work.

Gerhard Richter's oeuvre overcomes the division between abstract and representational art. His pictures neither cultivate a modest interplay of colours and forms nor do they deliver an intact picture of reality. Richter is a sceptical artist who questions the reality of his art even when the prime subject of his paintings is the tangible. This applies in particular to his door, curtain and window pictures of the 1960s, which form the central focus of this volume. They stage a playful examination of the illusory nature of art, which always questions what painting shows or conceals.

This lavishly appointed volume is published to mark the artist's 85th birthday.

About the Author

Christoph Schreier is deputy director at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The Kunstmuseum Bonn holds one of the most important collections of German art in the country, with a focus on the Rhenish Expressionists and German art after 1945, and a special emphasis on graphic art, photography, videography, and multimedia art.