Gerhard Richter: Painting as Mirror

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.

The book Gerhard Richter. Zufall. The Cologne Cathedral Window, and 4900 Colours examines the creative process behind Richter’s work at Cologne Cathedral [CR: 900]. For almost 4 years he was engaged in the task of creating a contemporary glass window to be installed in the south transept of this sacred gothic building.

Besides analysing the design process, reference is also made to Richter’s colour field paintings of the 1960s and 1970s, which the window is based upon. Images of the work are accompanied by three essays that shed light on the principle of randomness, which played a prominent part in the creation of the Cologne window and 4900 Colours [CR: 902]. Alongside this, the notion of an abstract design being used for a sacred glass window is also discussed from a theological point of view.

Contributions by Stephan Diederich, Barbara Schock-Werner, Hubertus Butin and Birgit Pelzer.

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.

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.