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Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter Books

Visual Artist

Gerhard Richter

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“I have become involved with thinking and acting without the help of an ideology; I have nothing that helps me, no idea that I serve and am known for . . . no rules that regulate the how, no belief that gives me direction, no picture of the future, no instruction that produces an overly ordered mind. I acknowledge only what is and, accordingly, regard every description and configuration of that which we don’t know as madness. Ideologues seduce and exploit uncertainty, legitimize war.”

WarRealityMadnessIdeologues
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“You can compare it to dreams: you have a very specific and individual pictorial language that you either accept or that you can translate rashly and wrongly. Of course, you can ignore dreams, but that would be a shame, because they're useful.”

DreamWould BeCoursesIndividualLanguageAcceptingShameCompareTranslateDreams You HavePictorial
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
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“Painting is my profession, because it has always been the thing that interested me most. I'm of a certain age, I come from a different tradition and, in any case, I can't do anything else. I'm still very sure that painting is one of the most basic human capacities, like dancing and singing, that make sense, that stay with us, as something human.”

HumansStillsI CanDifferentAgeCertainCasesPaintingSingingCapacityTraditionDancingProfessionMake SenseHuman Capacity
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“Politicians are nauseating by definition... They can produce nothing, neither a loaf of bread nor a table nor a picture; and this inability to create value, this total inferiority, makes them jealous, vengeful, insolent and a menace to life and limb.”

ValuesProducePoliticianTablesDefinitionsBreadJealousInabilityLimbsInferiorityMenaceVengefulInsolent
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
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“Theory has nothing to do with a work of art. Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures. A picture presents itself as the Unmanageable, the Illogical, the Meaningless. It demonstrates the endless multiplicity of aspects; it takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view.”

ArtShowsNamesViewsTheoryAspectInfiniteEndlessCertaintyVarietySignificanceWorks Of ArtMeaninglessEmergenceMultiplicityIllogicalManifold
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“Art is not a substitute religion: it is a religion (in the true sense of the word: 'binding back', 'binding' to the unknowable, transcending reason, transcendent being). But the church is no longer adequate as a means of affording experience of the transcendental, and of making religion real - and so art has been transformed from a means into the sole provider of religion: which means religion itself.”

MeanHas BeensArtRealReasonChurchArt IsSubstitutesTransformedSoleAdequateTranscendentBindingTranscendentalProvidersTranscendingAffording
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“Almost every work of art is an analogy. When I make a representation of something, this too is an analogy to what exists; I make an effort to get a grip on the thing by depicting it. I prefer to steer clear of anything aesthetic, so as not to set obstacles in my own way and not to have the problem of people saying: 'Ah, yes, that's how he sees the world, that's his interpretation.'”

PeopleWorldWayArtProblemMy OwnEffortClearArt IsObstaclesInterpretationWorks Of ArtAestheticRepresentationAnalogiesSteers
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
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“Of course I constantly despair at my own incapacity, at the impossibility of ever accomplishing anything, of painting a valid, true picture or even knowing what such a thing ought to look like. But then I always have the hope that, if I persevere, it might one day happen. And this hope is nurtured every time something appears, a scattered, partial, initial hint of something which reminds me of what I long for, or which conveys a hint of it – although often enough I have been fooled by a momentary glimpse that then vanishes, leaving behind only the usual thing.”

IfsLooksLongHas BeensEnoughMightHappensCoursesMy OwnBehindsKnowingPaintingOughtOne DayDespairLeavingUsualGlimpseImpossibilityInitialsPersevereHintsFooledMomentaryIncapacityAccomplishing Anything
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
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