Gerhard Richter

Born and raised during the Second World War (1932, Dresden, Germany), becoming an artist in Eastern Germany, escaping Communism in 1961, climbing into a plane destined for New York on the morning of 11th September 2001. Gerhard Richter’s life has followed a series of historical events whose memories are kept alive through his work.

"Of course, my landscapes are not only beautiful or nostalgic, with a Romantic or classical suggestion of lost Paradises, but above all 'untruthful'; and by 'untruthful' I mean the glorifying way we look at nature." —Gerhard Richter

From the beginning, Richter explored different paths simultaneously, alternating between the abstract and the figurative, developing a profusion of themes, mediums, and techniques. Deeply affected by the Second World War, he made forays into his own memory as well as that of Germany. History continuing as the dominant theme, he worked from photographs: from an annihilated Dresden, to the Baader-Meinhof gang, to the twin towers of the World Trade Center that he might have crashed into himself. Ever unpredictable, Richter has found inspiration in the classic Italian Grand Masters such as Titian (Annunciation after Titian) and painted an immense multi-coloured checkerboard (Colour Chart). When the artist, who has never adhered to any particular convention, fashion, or trend, embarked on his most abstract series (Abstract Paintings), he was innovative; overturning buckets of colour that he proceeded to crush onto ten-meter square canvases.