Gerhard Richter

This catalogue is in addition to the exhibition at de MoMa on the paintings of the lives and deaths of the Baader-Meinhof group. The late 1960s, the Baader-Meinhof group had become Germany's most feared terrorists. Although the prisoners' deaths were pronounced suicides, the authorities were suspected of murder.

The fifteen works in October 18, 1977 evoke fragments from the lives and deaths of the Baader-Meinhof group. Richter has worked in a range of styles over the years, including show more painterly and geometric abstraction as well as varieties of realism based on photography; the slurred and murky motifs of this work derive from newspaper and police photographs or television images. Shades of gray dominate, the absence of color conveying the way these second-hand images from the mass media sublimate their own emotional content. An almost cinematic repetition gives an impression, as if in slow motion, of the tragedy's inexorable unfolding. Produced during a prosperous, politically conservative era eleven years after the events, and insisting that this painful and controversial subject be remembered, these paintings are widely regarded as among the most challenging works of Richter's career. show less

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Gerhard Richter. 40 Years of Painting at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, this publication represents a broad range of Gerhard Richter's paintings of the last 40 years.

Gerhard Richter's diverse body of work questions broadly held attitudes about the inherent importance of stylistic consistency for an artist. It ranges from photo-based pictures all across the board to gestural abstraction. The 'natural' evolution of individual artistic show more sensibility, the spontaneous component of creativity and the relationship of technological means and mass media imagery to traditional studio methods and formats. Richter has always kept his distance from revolutionaries and conservatives alike regarding what painting “should” be. This has resulted in what has been among the most convincing renewal of painting's vitality in late 20th- and early 21st-century art.

This publication consists of a critical essay by curator Robert Storr, a rare interview with the artist himself, a chronology, an exhibition history, and nearly 300 colour and duotone reproductions. show less

The two great polar tendencies of Gerhard Richter's art -- pure abstraction and photo-realism -- have never been at odds with one another, and are in fact complementary aspects of Richter's total vision. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in his landscape work -- work which stretches the boundaries of one of painting's most cliche-ridden traditions. Since the late 1960s Richter's landscape paintings have formed an integral part of the artist's overall body of work, and one which this book show more documents in depth. Presented here in lush reproductions, these works are given the separate consideration they have always warranted, and the result is a book that can be counted among the most important on this seminal artist. show less

Die jetzt vorliegende „Gesamtausgabe“ der Texte von Gerhard Richter ergänzt den ersten Teil, die 1993 erschienene seit langem vergriffene Edition der Jahre 1962–93 um 15 wesentliche Beiträge. Sie beginnt mit einem Abschiedsbrief Richters an Heinz Lohmar. Es folgen sämtliche Texte der letzten überaus produktiven und ereignisreichen 14 Jahre und schließt mit Richters Interview vom Sommer 2007 zu seinem Biennalebeitrag in Venedig. Gerhard Richter stellte erstmals sein gesamtes show more persönliches Archiv zur Verfügung, aus dem auch zahlreiche der meist unveröffentlichten Fotos stammen. Ein wissenschaftlicher Anhang enthält erläuternde Kommentare, Quellen und einen Index. Die Themen der Richterschen „Texte“ sind vielfältig und reichen weit über kunstimmanente Fragen hinaus. Es sind Notizen, Tagebucheintragungen, zu bestimmten Anlässen entstandene kurze Essays, Briefe, Stellungnahmen, Statements, Manifeste und immer wieder Interviews, Gespräche und Dialoge – Richters bevorzugte Form der Mitteilung. Wie kein anderer zeitgenössischer Künstler refl ektiert Gerhard Richter in seinen Texten die Frage nach Möglichkeiten, Funktionen und Autonomie von Kunst heute. show less