Richter, Gerhard (1932-…), is a leading German artist known for his paintings based on photographs. Richter experiments in a broad variety of styles. He insists that he has no specific style, objective, or system in his art. However, he is probably best known for his works based on photographic images, especially images of commonplace subjects, such as family snapshots and newspaper photos. In these realistic scenes, Richter often intentionally blurs the outlines of his subject, as shown in his Kitchen Chair (1965). Such pictures reflect the conflict and contradictions Richter sees between photography, realistic painting, and abstract painting.
Some of Richter’s work has political overtones. For example, in 1988 he painted a series of pictures called 18. Oktober 1977, based on black-and-white photos that recorded the lives and deaths of a band of German terrorists called the Baader-Meinhof gang. About this time, Richter also painted traditional landscapes based on photographic sources, such as Laacher Meadow (1987). Richter has also painted purely abstract pictures, often using gaudy colors and broad brush strokes. Some of these paintings were based on color charts, as in his series 256 Colors (1973-1974, repainted 1984). He also painted abstract works in a monochromatic (single-color) style, such as his gray Abstract Picture (1999).
Richter was born on Feb. 9, 1932, in Dresden. From 1952 to 1957, he studied at the Academy of the Arts in Dresden, at that time a city in Communist-controlled East Germany. He trained as a mural painter, painting realistic images on socialist themes authorized by the East German government.
In 1959, Richter was strongly influenced by Documenta II, an art exhibition he attended in Kassel in West Germany. The exhibition featured the work of the Abstract Expressionist painters Jackson Pollock of the United States and Lucio Fontana of Italy. Richter’s exposure to these artists stimulated him to leave the artistic restrictions of East Germany for the more intellectually liberal West Germany. In 1961, Richter settled in Dusseldorf, then in West Germany, which became his permanent home. He soon developed his interest in photographic imagery, leading to his first painting in that style, Table (1962). Richter’s ideas on art were published as Gerhard Richter: The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings and Interviews, 1962-1993 (1995).
See also Painting (Neoexpressionism).
