Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter and Abstraction

This publication focuses on the abstract strategies and methods present throughout the artist's body of work. Gerhard Richter views painting as a framework for the fractures of the 20th century. In the 1960s, he began to question painting, a pursuit that continues to engage him today. For his cropped images, he photographed small details from his color palette and transferred them onto large canvases using photorealistic techniques. In the color panels of the 1970s, he left the relationships between colors to chance and subjected painting to an objectifiable process. Since 1976, he has been creating the series of Abstract Paintings, where Richter allows the application of color with brush, squeegee, and spatula to be a play of conscious decisions and random processes. For the first time, a publication is dedicated to abstraction in Gerhard Richter's entire oeuvre, addressing a central theme of one of the most influential contemporary artists worldwide. In collaboration with the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, and the Gerhard Richter Archive, State Art Collections Dresden. Contributions by Hubertus Butin, Dietmar Elger, Valerie Hortolani, Matthias Krüger, Ortrud Westheider, and Armin Zweite.