Abstract Painting No. 439 by Gerhard Richter
September by Gerhard Richter
Seascape by Gerhard Richter
Party by Gerhard Richter
Phantom Interceptors by Gerhard Richter
XL 513 by Gerhard Richter
Lilies by Gerhard Richter
Meadowland by Gerhard Richter
Clouds by Gerhard Richter
Mouth by Gerhard Richter
Venice (Staircase) [Venedig (Treppe)] by Gerhard Richter
Station by Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter

1932–present

Richter has painted in every style and committed to none. Photo-realist portraits, blurred landscapes, colour charts, squeegeed abstractions, grey monochromes. He has worked figuratively and abstractly, sometimes in the same week. Critics have called this postmodern. Richter calls it doubt.

Key facts

Born
1932
Works held in
1 museum[1]

Biography

He grew up in Dresden, in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts under a Socialist Realist curriculum that required paintings to serve the state. He crossed to West Germany in 1961, months before the Berlin Wall went up, and enrolled at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he encountered Pop Art, Fluxus, and the freedom to paint whatever he wanted. The shift was disorienting.

The photo-paintings came first: enlarged reproductions of found photographs, slightly blurred, painted in grey. Uncle Rudi shows a smiling man in a Wehrmacht uniform. Aunt Marianne shows a young woman holding a baby. The baby is Richter. Marianne was murdered under the Nazi euthanasia programme. The blur is not stylistic; it is the distance between a photograph and what it represents.

The abstract paintings, made from the 1980s onwards, are produced by dragging a large squeegee across layers of wet oil paint. The process is partly controlled and partly aleatory. He builds up and scrapes back dozens of layers, destroying compositions to find better ones underneath. The results are dense, luminous, and unpredictable. No two are alike.

He is the highest-selling living European artist. A 1986 abstract sold for 46 million dollars in 2015. He lives in Cologne and continues to work, though he has said he may have painted his last painting. He has said this before.

Timeline

  1. 1963Painted "Mouth (Brigitte Bardot's Lips)" aged 31.
  2. 1963Painted "Mouth (Brigitte Bardot's Lips)" aged 31.
  3. 1965Painted "Women Descending the Staircase" aged 33.
  4. 1965Painted "Women Descending the Staircase" aged 33.
  5. 1978Painted "Abstract Painting No. 439" aged 46.
  6. 1978Painted "Abstract Painting No. 439" aged 46.
  7. 1988Painted "Youth Portrait (October 18)" aged 56.
  8. 1988Painted "Youth Portrait (October 18)" aged 56.
  9. 1994Painted "Abstract Picture" aged 62.
  10. 1994Painted "Abstract Picture" aged 62.
  11. 2007Painted "Cologne Cathedral Window" aged 75.
  12. 2007Painted "Cologne Cathedral Window" aged 75.

Notable Works

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Gerhard richter art movement?
    Gerhard Richter was painting images from illustrated magazines around the same time as the American Pop artists. He was interested in gaining the pictorial worlds of the mass media for art.
  • Gerhard richter famous works?
    One of Gerhard Richter's works is Uncle Rudi, which depicts a smiling man in a Wehrmacht uniform. Another is Aunt Marianne, which depicts a young woman holding a baby; the baby is Richter.
  • Is gerhard richter still alive?
    No, Gerhard Richter died in 1944.
  • Is gerhard richter still painting?
    Gerhard Richter continues to work, though he has stated that he may have painted his last painting. However, he has made this statement before.
  • What is gerhard richter known for?
    Gerhard Richter is known for painting images from illustrated magazines in the early 1960s. He transposed these images to canvas in grey, slightly blurred.
  • What is gerhard richter most famous for?
    Gerhard Richter is known for painting images from illustrated magazines in the early 1960s. He transposed these images to canvas in grey, slightly blurred.
  • When was gerhard richter born?
    Gerhard Richter was born in 1919. Gerhard Richter died in 1944, aged 25.
  • Where does gerhard richter live?
    Gerhard Richter lives in Cologne.
  • Why did gerhard richter stop painting?
    Gerhard Richter has stated that he may have painted his last painting, but he has made this claim before. It is not clear if he has stopped painting permanently.
  • Why is gerhard richter important?
    Gerhard Richter explored the pictorial worlds of mass media for art in the early 1960s. He transposed slightly blurred, grey images from illustrated magazines to canvas.
  • Is gerhard richter a contemporary artist?
    Gerhard Richter has explored many styles and modes of twentieth-century art. He is described as a coolly intellectual pyrotechnician who has carried the notion of pluralism in painting to radical extremes.
  • Who is gerhard richter?
    Gerhard Richter painted images from illustrated magazines in the early 1960s. He was also a visiting professor at the Hochschule fur Bildende Künste, Hamburg.

Sources

Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Gerhard Richter.

  1. [1] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  2. [2] museum Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Used for: museum holdings.
  3. [3] museum Städel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  4. [4] museum National Galleries Scotland Used for: museum holdings.
  5. [5] museum Sprengel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  6. [6] museum Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Used for: museum holdings.
  7. [7] book guggenheim-nineyoungartists00solo Used for: biography.
  8. [8] book guggenheim-refigur00kren Used for: biography.
  9. [9] book Masterpieces of western art : a history of art in 900 individual studies from the Gothic to the present day Used for: biography.

Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.

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