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Quote by Gerhard Richter

“The first colour charts were unsystematic. They were based directly on commercial colour samples. They were still related to Pop Art. In the canvases that followed, the colours were chosen arbitrarily and drawn by chance. Then, 180 tones were mixed according to a given system and drawn by chance to make four variations of 180 tones. But after that the number 180 seemed too arbitrary to me, so I developed a system based on a number of rigorously defined tones and proportions.”

Quote by Gerhard Richter

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Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter

German visual artist known for his unique painting style and diverse creative techniques. Richter's works span a wide range of styles from abstraction to figuration, and his career has spanned over half a century, profoundly influencing contemporary art. more

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“Based on mixtures of the three primary colours, along with black and white, I come up with a certain number of possible colours and, by multiplying these by two or four, I obtain a definite number of colour fields that I multiply yet again by two, etc. But the complete realization of this project demands a great deal of time and work.”

ArtTwoCertainThreeBlackWhiteDealsNumbersFourFieldsPaintingDemandProjectsCome UpRealizationPrimariesColourEtcBlack And WhiteDefiniteMixturesMultiplying
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“Pictures are the idea in visual or pictorial form; and the idea has to be legible, both in the individual picture and in the collective context - which presupposes, of course, that words are used to convey information about the idea and the context. However, none of this means that pictures function as illustrations of an idea: ultimately, they are the idea. Nor is the verbal formulation of the idea a translation of the visual: it simply bears a certain resemblance to the meaning of the idea. It is an interpretation, literally a reflection.”

MeanArtIdeasFormUsedCertainCoursesIndividualInformationPaintingBearsReflectionFunctionVisualsCollectivesInterpretationTranslationsIllustrationResemblancePictorial
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“I've never found anything to be lacking in a blurry canvas. Quite the contrary: you can see many more things in it than in a sharply focused image. A landscape painted with exactness forces you to see a determined number of clearly differentiated trees, while in a blurry canvas you can perceive as many trees as you want. The painting is more open.”

WantArtFoundForceNumbersTreePaintingDeterminedFocusedContraryLandscapePerceiveCanvasLackingExactnessBlurry
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
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“When I first painted a number of canvases grey all over (about eight years ago), I did so because I did not know what to paint, or what there might be to paint: so wretched a start could lead to nothing meaningful. As time went on, however, I observed differences of quality among the grey surfaces - and also that these betrayed nothing of the destructive motivation that lay behind them. The pictures began to teach me. By generalizing a personal dilemma, they resolved it.”

KnowsYearsFirstsArtMightMotivationDifferencesNumbersBehindsQualityTeachPaintingYears AgoLaysPaintEightSurfaceMeaningfulDestructiveGreyBetrayedWretchedDilemma
Author:Gerhard Richter
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“Grey. It makes no statement whatever; it evokes neither feelings nor associations: it is really neither visible nor invisible. Its inconspicuousness gives it the capacity to mediate, to make visible, in a positively illusionistic way, like a photograph. It has the capacity that no other colour has, to make 'nothing' visible.”

WayGivingArtFeelingsPaintingCapacityPhotographInvisibleStatementsColourVisibleAssociationGreyPositivelyEvoke
Book:Gerhard Richter: October 18, 1977
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“To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, noncommitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape. But grey, like formlessness and the rest, can be real only as an idea, and so all I can do is create a colour nuance that means grey but is not it. The painting is then a mixture of grey as a fiction and grey as a visible, designated area of colour.”

MeanArtI CanIdeasRealCan DoFictionOpinionPaintingShapesAreasAbsenceWelcomeIndifferenceColourVisibleBeing RealGreyMixturesNuance
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
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“Of course, pictures of objects also have this transcendental side to them. Every object, being part of an ultimately incomprehensible world, also embodies that world; when represented in a picture, the object conveys this mystery all the more powerfully, the less of a 'function' the picture has. Hence, for instance, the growing fascination of many beautiful old portraits.”

WorldArtBeautifulCoursesSidesGrowingMysteryObjectsPaintingFunctionInstancePortraitsFascinationTranscendental
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
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“My pictures are devoid of objects; like objects, they are themselves objects. This means that they are devoid of content, significance or meaning, like objects or trees, animals, people or days, all of which are there without a reason, without a function and without a purpose. This is the quality that counts. Even so, there are good and bad pictures.”

PeopleMeanArtReasonPurposeAnimalQualityTreeObjectsPaintingFunctionSignificanceGood And Bad
Author:Gerhard Richter
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