German Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1905–1985

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 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.

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 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.

Gerhard Richter has been widely regarded as a publicity shy artist. However, the biography Gerhard Richter, Maler gives an insight into Richter’s personal history as well as into the development of his artistic œuvre.
Besides an evaluation of numerous letters and material from the Gerhard Richter archive, the book includes conversations with the artist as well as several of his contemporaries. Dietmar Elger, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive, describes Richter’s daily studio routine and his creative process. Thanks to detailed background information, this book contributes to an understanding of Richter’s art in connection with his life.

This issue of the Patrimonia series was published on the occasion of the acquisition of the painting Portrait Dr. Knobloch of 1964 by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 2009. The history of the painting’s origin, which was one of Gerhard Richter’s first commissioned portraits, is analysed in context of his other early portraits. The portraits after passport photos are highlighted especially and compared with portraits by Andy Warhol.

Text contribution by Dietmar Elger, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive Dresden.

Gerhard Richter. Bilder einer Epoche was published on the occasion of the exhibition at Bucerius Kunstforum in Hamburg in 2011. Both the exhibition and the catalogue focus on Richter’s paintings of the 1960s that are based on photographical source images. The paintings and photographs, which were predominantly taken from magazines and advertisements of the era, are confronted with each other; Richter’s selective process is illuminated and categorised here.

Letters, which Richter wrote to his artist friends Helmut Heinze and Wieland Förster, can also be read for the first time in this publication, along with photographs of Richter’s studio at the time, and give a strong impression of his work in this period.

The cycle October 18, 1977 completes the works from the 1960s since its creative process refers to the earlier works. A comprehensive examination of the source material that lead to these paintings of members of the terrorist group Red Army Faction has also been carried out.

Contributions by Ortrud Westheider, Uwe M. Schneede, Dietmar Elger, Hubertus Butin and Dietmar Rübel.

Gerhard Richter is widely recognized as one of the most significant painters working today, and he is certainly among the most influential. He has worked in a wide range of media since the early 1960s, producing abstractions, landscapes, images derived from the mass media and from other photographs, and more. Seen together, these works call into question such widely held assumptions as the importance of stylistic consistency, individual artistic sensibility and spontaneous creativity. They also explore the impact of technology and media imagery on the traditional methods and formats of painting.

The Museum of Modern Art has published two important books on Richter, both written by Robert Storr: one covering forty years of his work, and published to accompany the Museum's large retrospective of his work in 2002, and one focusing on a single crucial series, October 18, 1977. This book brings together the essays and recent interviews from both of those books in a single volume.

Gerhard Richter. Images of an Era was published on the occasion of the exhibition at Bucerius Kunstforum in Hamburg in 2011. Both the exhibition and the catalogue focus on Richter’s paintings of the 1960s that are based on photographical source images. The paintings and photographs, which were predominantly taken from magazines and advertisements of the era, are confronted with each other; Richter’s selective process is illuminated and categorised here.

Letters, which Richter wrote to his artist friends Helmut Heinze and Wieland Förster, can also be read for the first time in this publication, along with photographs of Richter’s studio at the time, and give a strong impression of his work in this period.

The cycle October 18, 1977 completes the works from the 1960s since its creative process refers to the earlier works. A comprehensive examination of the source material that lead to these paintings of members of the terrorist group Red Army Faction has also been carried out.

Contributions by Ortrud Westheider, Uwe M. Schneede, Dietmar Elger, Hubertus Butin and Dietmar Rübel.

In this publication, eminent American scholar and curator Robert Storr offers an authoritative consideration of September, Richter’s 2005 painting made in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center of 11 September 2001, asking “what is the meaning of a single, small, almost abstract depiction of one of the most consequential occurrences in recent world history?”

Opening with a vivid personal account of being in New York that day and paying particular attention to the role of the media, Storr deftly explores the geo-political context of the attacks, capturing the effects of the atrocity on a deeply human level while navigating the complex web of political, social, religious and cultural factors that it embodied and the discourse it has provoked.

Along with an erudite analysis of the creation of the painting, Storr’s treatise develops by means of an insightful study into the themes of terrorism, murder, violence and war in Richter’s oeuvre, from the bombing of cities during World War II to the controversial cycle of paintings October 18, 1977 (1988) depicting West German terrorists, the Baader-Meinhof group.

In 2009 September was gifted to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In making a valuable contribution to the understanding of a significant work by one of the world’s foremost artists, this publication demonstrates how vital painting and its readings can be for engaging with the complexities of major events in the world today.

Gerhard Richter has been widely regarded as a publicity shy artist. However, the biography Gerhard Richter. A Life in Painting gives an insight into Richter’s personal history as well as into the development of his artistic œuvre.
Besides an evaluation of numerous letters and material from the Gerhard Richter archive, the book includes conversations with the artist as well as several of his contemporaries. Dietmar Elger, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive, describes Richter’s daily studio routine and his creative process. Thanks to detailed background information, this book contributes to an understanding of Richter’s art in connection with his life.

This English translation of the biography Gerhard Richter, Maler by Dietmar Elger, published in 2009, was slightly revised for the Anglophone reader.

Gerhard Richter has been widely regarded as a publicity shy artist. However, the biography Gerhard Richter, Maler gives an insight into Richter’s personal history as well as into the development of his artistic œuvre.
Besides an evaluation of numerous letters and material from the Gerhard Richter archive, the book includes conversations with the artist as well as several of his contemporaries. Dietmar Elger, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive, describes Richter’s daily studio routine and his creative process. Thanks to detailed background information, this book contributes to an understanding of Richter’s art in connection with his life.

This edition of the biography Gerhard Richter, Maler published in 2008 was slightly revised to include details of more recent events in Richter’s life.