The Richter Interviews collects conversations between Hans Ulrich
Obrist and Gerhard Richter conducted over the course of more than two
decades of discussion and collaboration. Subjects discussed range from
Richter's place within art history to artists' books, architecture,
religion, unrealized projects and his advice for young artists. This
collection also includes a previously unpublished interview focused on
Richter's much-lauded window for Cologne Cathedral.
Obrist's vast knowledge and interrogating mind, coupled with his
longstanding friendship with Richter, make him a unique interlocutor for
the artist, whose work spans more than 60 years and ranges from painting
to photography, glass to printmaking, watercolors to books.
Illustrations of artworks discussed by Richter accompany the texts for
visual reference--making this an indispensable guide to the thinking and
creative processes of one of the world's most admired artists.
Born in Dresden, East Germany, in 1932, Gerhard Richter migrated to
West Germany in 1961, settling in Düsseldorf, where he studied at the
Düsseldorf Academy, and where he held his first solo exhibition in 1963.
Over the course of that decade, Richter helped to liberate painting from
the legacy of socialist realism (in Eastern Germany) and abstract
expressionism (in Western Germany and throughout Europe). He has
exhibited internationally for the last five decades, with retrospectives
in New York, Paris and Düsseldorf. He lives and works in Cologne.
Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a world-renowned curator and the
artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Alongside his
curatorial practice, Obrist has written extensively on and around
contemporary art, with a particular interest in the interview format.
Among his recent publications are Conversations in Colombia (2016) and
The Czech Files (2015).
