Gerhard Richter is one of the most important and influential artists of
the post-war era. For decades he has sought innovative ways to make
painting more relevant, often through a multifaceted dialogue with
photography. Today Richter is most widely recognized for the
photo-paintings he made during the 1960s that rely on images culled from
mass media and pop culture. Always fascinated with the limits and
uncertainties of representation, he has since then produced landscapes,
abstractions, glass and mirror constructions, prints, sculptures, and
installations.
Though Richter has been known in the United States for quite some time,
the highly successful retrospective of his work at the MoMA in 2002
catapulted him to unprecedented fame. Enter noted curator Dietmar Elger,
who here presents the first biography of this contemporary artist.
Written with full access to Richter and his archives, this fascinating
book offers unprecedented insight into his life and work. Elger explores
Richter's childhood in Nazi Germany; his years as a student and mural
painter in communist East Germany; his time in the West during the
turbulent 1960s and '70s, when student protests, political strife, and
violence tore the Federal Republic of Germany apart; and his rise to
international acclaim during the 1980s and beyond.
Richter has always been a difficult personality to parse and the
seemingly contradictory strands of his artistic practice have frustrated
and sometimes confounded critics. But the extensive interviews on which
this book is based disclose a Richter who is far more candid, personal,
and vivid than ever before. The result is a book that will be the
foundational portrait of this artist for years to come.
