Gerhard Richter. 18. Oktober 1977

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 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.

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.

Designed by the artist himself, this publication gives a rare insight into one of the most intensive work periods (1995–1996) of Richter’s life.

It commences by introducing pictures, which having been kept in the artist’s studio had never been on view. Although mostly focussing on abstract works, an intimate cycle of eight photo paintings in a smaller format is also included: an autobiographic cycle depicting his third wife Sabine Moritz, a painter herself, and their first son Moritz in a Madonna-like pose.

The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Gerhard Richter. Abstrakte Bilder at Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Haus der Kunst, Munich. The exhibitions were dedicated to Gerhard Richter’s abstract pictures, which form approximately one third of his œuvre.

However, this publication is not an overview of the development of his abstract works, but rather singles out selected large format works for discussion. These works, executed between 1986 and 2006, show a similar complexity that originates from a multitude of layers of paint.

Edited by Ulrich Wilmes, with text contributions by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Beate Söntgen and Gregor Stemmrich.

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.

The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Gerhard Richter. Abstrakte Bilder at Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Haus der Kunst, Munich. The exhibitions were dedicated to Gerhard Richter’s abstract pictures, which form approximately one third of his œuvre.

However, this publication is not an overview of the development of his abstract works, but rather singles out selected large format works for discussion. These works, executed between 1986 and 2006, show a similar complexity that originates from a multitude of layers of paint.

Edited by Ulrich Wilmes, with text contributions by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Beate Söntgen and Gregor Stemmrich.

At 864 pages, this monumental and comprehensive publication maps the ideas, processes, life and times of Gerhard Richter. Conceived and closely edited by Richter himself, Atlas cuts straight to the heart of the artist's work, collecting more than 5,000 photographs, drawings and sketches that he has compiled or created since the moment of his creative breakthrough in 1962. The images closely parallel, year by year, the subjects of Richter's paintings, revealing the orderly but open-ended analysis that has been so central to his art.
Offering invaluable insight into Richter's working process, this encyclopedic new edition - which completely revises and updates the rare, out-of-print 1997 edition and includes 147 additional plates - features 780 multi-image panels, each reproduced full page and in full colour.

The catalogue was published to coincide with the exhibition Gerhard Richter: 4900 Colours at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2008.

The work 4900 Colours [CR: 902] is the pictorial and transportable counterpart of the Cologne Cathedral Window [CR: 900] of 2007. Richter defined eleven different arrangements of the 4900 colour squares that form the piece. Version II, which divides the work into 49 separate pictures, was chosen for the Serpentine exhibition. The catalogue also introduces the other versions not exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery and includes an analysis of the principle of chance, which plays a distinctive role in Richter's œuvre and was used to arrange 4900 Colours.

With an introduction by Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist and text contributions by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Peter Gidal and Birgit Pelzer.

This limited edition reproduces in facsimile each of the twenty-three Richter works executed on pages of the book Stammheim. Der Prozess gegen die Rote Armee Fraktion by Pieter H. Bakker Schut – the story of the alleged simultaneous suicides in 1977 of three German members of the Red Army Faction in Stammheim prison.

The images here are abstract, yet closely historically and thematically linked to the artist's 18. Oktober 1977 series. They affirm Richter's continued search for a means to communicate historical themes beyond the physicality of the paint surface, his refusal to completely dispense with metaphor, his belief that art can express profound mourning while remaining, according to Richter, "the highest form of hope".

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition Richter en France at the Musée de Grenoble in 2009.
Both the exhibition and catalogue are dedicated to works by Gerhard Richter that belong to public collections and museums in France. The artworks offer an insight into Richter’s different creative periods. Despite an emphasis on abstract paintings of the 1980s, paintings after photographs, grey monochrome pictures and drawings are also taken into account.

The text contributions provide an overview of Richter's œuvre and address grey paintings and glass works, as well as drawings separately.

Text contributions by Guy Tosatto, Jean-Pierre Criqui and Jonas Storsve.

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.

At 864 pages, this monumental and comprehensive publication maps the ideas, processes, life and times of Gerhard Richter. Conceived and closely edited by Richter himself, Atlas cuts straight to the heart of the artist's work, collecting more than 5,000 photographs, drawings and sketches that he has compiled or created since the moment of his creative breakthrough in 1962. The images closely parallel, year by year, the subjects of Richter's paintings, revealing the orderly but open-ended analysis that has been so central to his art. Offering invaluable insight into Richter's working process, this encyclopedic new edition - which completely revises and updates the rare, out-of-print 1997 edition and includes 147 additional plates - features 780 multi-image panels, each reproduced full page and in full color.

The catalogue Gerhard Richter. Atlas displays 783 plates of Gerhard Richter’s Atlas. Atlas is a collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and sketches, which the artist compiled and then arranged on single sheets beginning in the mid 1960s. The plates, which often contain templates for his paintings, reflect different stages of Richter’s life and work.

With text contribution by Helmut Friedel.

This catalogue raisonné of Gerhard Richter's drawings encompasses works in pencil, India ink, ballpoint pen, and other drawing media, on both paper and canvas since 1964. This comprehensive survey presents more than 400 drawings, each with descriptive captions and background text, as well as essays by Dieter Schwarz and Birgit Pelzer that investigate this crucial component of one of the 20th century's most celebrated painters.

The catalogue Gerhard Richter. Bilder / Serien accompanies Gerhard Richter’s eponymous exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler. The show is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, a longstanding friend of Richter, and looks back at 60 years of the artist’s work. The exhibition focuses on work he created since the 1960s; namely, series, cycles and interior spaces. According to Obrist, too little attention has been devoted to this specific section of his oeuvre to date. Works exhibited in groups are juxtaposed with single pieces, which act as both counterpoints characteristic of Richter’s style, yet simultaneously illuminate the similarities between the different bodies of work.

Besides illustrations of the exhibited paintings, the catalogue also includes text contributions by Sam Keller, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Dieter Schwarz. The essays by Obrist and Schwarz primarily analyse Richter’s series. An interview between the curator and Richter reveals the background of the development of the series. Furthermore, the catalogue includes a letter by George Didi-Huberman, who shares his thoughts after a visit to the artist’s studio.

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.

The catalogue Gerhard Richter. Pictures / Series accompanies Gerhard Richter’s exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler. The show is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, a longstanding friend of Richter, and looks back at 60 years of the artist’s work. The exhibition focuses on work he created since the 1960s; namely, series, cycles and interior spaces. According to Obrist, too little attention has been devoted to this specific section of his oeuvre to date. Works exhibited in groups are juxtaposed with single pieces, which act as both counterpoints characteristic of Richter’s style, yet simultaneously illuminate the similarities between the different bodies of work.

Besides illustrations of the exhibited paintings, the catalogue also includes texts contributed by Sam Keller, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Dieter Schwarz. The essays by Obrist and Schwarz primarily analyse Richter’s series. An interview between the curator and Richter reveals the background of the development of the series. Furthermore, the catalogue includes a letter by George Didi-Huberman, who shares his thoughts after a visit to the artist’s studio.

On October 18, 1977, three young German radicals, members of the militant Baader-Meinhof group, were found dead in a Stuttgart prison; they were pronounced suicides, but many people suspected they had been murdered. Gerhard Richter, a German painter, and one of the most exceptional and highly regarded artists of the second half of the 20th century, created, 11 years after this traumatic event, a series of 15 paintings known as October 18, 1977. It is among the most challenging works of the artist's career, and one of the 20th century's most famous works on a political theme, still highly debated and unsettling to this day.

Accompanied by an extensive and sensitive group of texts by Robert Storr, who recently curated the Richter retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The catalogue Gerhard Richter. Übersicht accompanies the eponymous exhibition of the German Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IfA), which has been composed by Gerhard Richter himself.

The exhibition has been touring different countries for several years and presents Richter's œuvre abroad. The 27 selected works offer an insight into nearly every creative phase of the artist. The exhibition does not claim to show Richter's work comprehensively, the title rather refers to the exhibited piece of work Overview [Editions CR: 93] of 1998.

With a preface by Götz Adriani and text contributions by Dieter Schwarz.

The catalogue Gerhard Richter. Survey accompanies the eponymous exhibition of the German Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IfA), which has been composed by Gerhard Richter himself.

The exhibition has been touring different countries for several years and presents Richter's œuvre abroad. The 27 selected works offer an insight into nearly every creative phase of the artist. The exhibition does not claim to show Richter's work comprehensively, the title rather refers to the exhibited piece of work Overview [Editions CR: 93] of 1998.

With a preface by Götz Adriani and text contributions by Dieter Schwarz.

The catalogue raisonné of Gerhard Richters editions 1965–2004 was published to coincide with exhibitions in Bonn, Lucerne, Emden, Tübingen and Salzburg.

Authorised by Gerhard Richter, this catalogue takes into account limited edition objects, graphics and photographs as well as oil painting editions, artists' posters and artists' books. It is an edited and extended version of an editions' catalogue raisonné published in 1993.

The text contributions analyse the idea behind the editions and their design and consider them in the context of Richter's œuvre. Thus the limited edition pieces reflect essential focus points of his painterly work: in addition to portraits, still lifes and landscapes, also monochrome and abstract works can be found within the editions, as can the result of his engagement in glass materials and the principle of chance.

Text contributions by Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert and Catharina Manchanda.

The catalogue raisonné of Gerhard Richters editions 1965–2004 was published to coincided with exhibitions in Bonn, Lucerne, Emden, Tübingen and Salzburg.

Authorised by Gerhard Richter, this catalogue takes into account limited edition objects, graphics and photographs as well as oil painting editions, artists' posters and artists' books. It is an edited and extended version of an editions' catalogue raisonné published in 1993.

The text contributions analyse the idea behind the editions and their design and consider them in the context of Richter's œuvre. Thus the limited edition pieces reflect essential focus points of his painterly work: in addition to portraits, still lifes and landscapes, also monochrome and abstract works can be found within the editions, as can the result of his engagement in glass materials and the principle of chance.

Text contributions by Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert and Catharina Manchanda.

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.

Gerhard Richter. Portraits is the first publication that focuses solely on Richter’s portraits, many of which have now gained both recognition and veneration across the globe.

In his essay, Stefan Gronert discusses the position of the portrait in the artist’s oeuvre. He begins by looking at Richter’s early black and white pictures, then moving on to his more recent colour charts. The artist has explored this subject through various media, including painting, graphic reproduction, drawings, photography and film. Research conducted for this publication unearthed portraits in the artist’s archive that were hitherto unknown; now published in this monograph for the first time.
In his essay, Hubert Butin examines some of these newly discovered works; in particular focusing on Richter’s portrait photography of the 1960s.
 

Gerhard Richter in der Dresdener Galerie is the 7th volume from the publications of the Gerhard Richter Archive Dresden.

On the occasion of the re-opening of the Albertinum in 2010 the artist himself curated two rooms of the museum. Whereas the first room is dedicated to thirteen paintings from the years 1963 to 2000, the second room presents the work 9 Upright Standing Panes [CR: 879-3], as well as the series of reverse glass paintings Aladdin [CR: 913/1-42].

Text by Dietmar Elger.

Gerhard Richter. Portraits is the first publication that focuses solely on Richter’s portraits, many of which have now gained both recognition and veneration across the globe.

In his essay, Stefan Gronert discusses the position of the portrait in the artist’s oeuvre. He begins by looking at Richter’s early black and white pictures, then moving on to his more recent colour charts. The artist has explored this subject through various media, including painting, graphic reproduction, drawings, photography and film. Research conducted for this publication unearthed portraits in the artist’s archive that were hitherto unknown; now published in this monograph for the first time.

In his essay, Hubert Butin examines some of these newly discovered works; in particular focusing on Richter’s portrait photography of the 1960s.

This catalogue raisonné records Richter’s works in the years 1993-2004.

In his work, Gerhard Richter calls into question painting's boundaries, and the labels applied to painting and theories connected with them. In his pictures based on photographs - blurred overpaintings, grey paintings, and landscape and abstract compositions - he makes clear that nothing perceived by our senses can ever be found in a picture. The outer world is not portrayable and the inner one resists any comparison. While his painted works based on photographs illustrate painting's superiority, his glass works - glass panes, paintings on glass, mirrors and sculptures - question the interaction of viewer and picture and, like the paintings, offer a window onto the world. This publication takes account of all the important stages of Richter's oeuvre.