Gerhard Richter: Between Abstraction and Reality

Gerhard Richter1932– | GERMAN | OILS; PRINTS

A refugee from Communist East Germany (1961), and trained as an orthodox Communist trompe l’oeil social realist, Richter then had to assimilate Western Modernism. He is often pigeonholed with cutting-edge artists now in their 30s and 40s, but he is in fact old enough to be their father.

He produces three different types of work: schematic Minimalist abstracts; splashy, messy abstracts; but most typically, finely painted, soft-focus photographic imagery. What is not in doubt is his technical ability and high critical esteem. What is less clear is his meaning (he seems to deny any). Supporters say the deadpan blurriness shows his “dialectical tension” and virtuous ambivalence. Detractors ask how is it that such “important” work can be so boring?

S. with Child

Gerhard Richter, c.1995, oil on canvas, Hamburg: Kunsthalle.

One of a series of eight paintings Richter made of his wife with their newborn child, showing his characteristic blurred Photorealistic technique. The compositions revisit the religious motif of the Madonna and Child.

KEY WORKS:

Passage, 1968 (New York: Guggenheim Museum);

Korn, 1982 (New York: Guggenheim Museum);

St. John, 1988 (London: Tate Collection);

Abstract Painting (726), 1990 (London: Tate Collection)

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter