Artist Research: Gerhard Richter (b 1932, Germany)
There are many reasons why I am drawn to German artist Gerhard Richter’s paintings. I find his texture, colour, depth and scale of work simply amazing! It would be interesting to experience one of Richter’s paintings up close in situ, rather than viewing an online image.
I particularly like his large scale canvases that seem to unveil a mix of merging and separating colours, they also appear to move. His abstractions are expressed through thickly textured paint with layers of vibrant colour. A range of warm and cool paint tones recede backwards and forwards, under and over, full of contrast. Some seem to seep through to the surface in a syrup-like fluid manner, with some colours appearing to almost slide off the canvas. I enjoy layering thick amounts of paint too. Therefore, I admire how Richter shifts, pushes and pulls his layers of paint around the surface using a range of techniques such as a squeegee tool. Yet, the colours tend not to become muddy. I wonder if the secret to keeping this vibrancy of colour beneath other colours clearly visible and clean is patience and drying time between layers, and a matter of dedicated practice.
Richter is a prolific artist, and since his art studies from 1951-1956 at Kunstakademie in Dresden, and from 1961-1963 at Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, he has created very diverse artworks. He is not only an abstract painter, but a realist painter too. Richter paints and reworks over the top of photographs and makes representative figurative work, he draws abstractions and constructs sculptural glassworks, both two and three-dimensional.
Bibliography Sources:
Marian Goodman Gallery. Gerhard Richter. Accessed September 26, 2021. https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/401-gerhard-richter/
Marian Goodman Gallery. Gerhard Richter. Accessed September 26, 2021. https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/gerhard-richter-new-york-2020/
SFMOMA. Abstract Picture. Gerhard Richter. Accessed September 26, 2021. https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/FC.509/
Wikipedia. Gerhard Richter. Accessed September 26, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Richter