Quotessence
Home / Authors / Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter Quotes

Visual Artist

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtPaintingPaintPhotographKnowsMeanWayIfsRealityI CanDifferentThinkingBelieveCoursesArt IsColourFormImportantQualityWells

Famous Gerhard Richter Quotes

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“Art is the pure realization of religious feeling, capacity for faith, longing for God. ... The ability to believe is our outstanding quality, and only art adequately translates it into reality. But when we assuage our need for faith with an ideology we court disaster.”

NeedsBelieveArtFeelingsRealityReligiousAbilityQualityPureArt IsCapacityCourtLongingDisasterIdeologyRealizationTranslateOutstandingLonging For God
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
Create image

“A work of art is itself an object, first of all, and so manipulation is unavoidable: it's a prerequisite. But I needed the greater objectivity of the photograph in order to correct my own way of seeing: for instance, if I draw an object from nature, I start to stylize and to change it in accordance with my personal vision and my training. But if I paint from a photograph, I can forget all the criteria that I get from these sources. I can paint against my will, as it were. And that, to me, felt like an enrichment.”

IfsWayFirstsArtI CanOrderFeltMy OwnForgetVisionGreaterSeeingObjectsSourceNeededPhotographyTrainingDrawsArt IsPaintPhotographInstanceManipulationWorks Of ArtCriteriaObjectivityPrerequisitesEnrichmentPersonal Vision
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
Create image