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Quote by Gerhard Richter

“I think everybody starts out by seeing a few works of art and wanting to do something like them. You want to understand what you see, what is there, and you try to make a picture out of it. Later you realize that you can't represent reality at all - that what you make represents nothing but itself, and therefore is itself reality.”

Quote by Gerhard Richter

Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Work

Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007 is a comprehensive compilation of the artist's written works over a significant period of his career. The book offers insights into Richter's evolving artistic philosophy, his approach to painting, and his reflections on the role of art in society. It is a valuable resource for those interested in the thoughts and ideas of one of the most influential contemporary artists. more

Author

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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“But I would like to reach the point where I could cut up an illustrated magazine at random and see to it that the parts would each become a painting. I cannot properly explain it right now. Already now I am searching for the most boring and irrelevant photo material that I can find. And I would like to get to the point soon where this determined irrelevance could be retained, in favor of something that would be covered up otherwise by artifice.”

I Can Would Be Cutting Painting Materials Right Now Photography Boring Determined Favors Magazines Covered Irrelevant Artifice Irrelevance Covered Up

Author:Gerhard Richter

“The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both in its way of informing, and in what it informs of, it is my source.”

Way Doe Perfect Style Source Photography Absolutes Photograph Unconditional Autonomous Informing

Author:Gerhard Richter

“Suddenly, I saw it in a new way, as a picture that offered me a new view, free of all the conventional criteria I had always associated with art. It had no style, no composition, no judgment. It freed me from personal experience. For the first time, there was nothing to it: it was pure picture. That's why I wanted to have it, to show it - not use it as a means to painting but use painting as a means to photography.”

Way Firsts Mean Art Use Shows Wanted Views Saws Style Painting Pure Judgment Photography First Time Conventional New Ways Composition Criteria Personal Experiences

Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Source: Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

“I don't mistrust reality, of which I know next to nothing. I mistrust the picture of reality conveyed to us by our senses, which is imperfect and circumscribed.”

Knows Reality Next Photography Senses Imperfect Mistrust

Author:Gerhard Richter

“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.”

Source: Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007

“Photography has almost no reality; it is almost a hundred per cent picture. And painting always has reality: you can touch the paint; it has presence; but it always yields a picture - no matter whether good or bad. That's all the theory. It's no good. I once took some small photographs and then smeared them with paint. That partly resolved the problem, and it's really good - better than anything I could ever say on the subject.”

Matter Problem Reality Subjects Painting Theory Photography Hundred Paint Photograph Yield Cents

Author:Gerhard Richter

“As a matter of fact, it was only through the dealer Fred Jahn that I succeeded in overcoming my reservation about the works on paper and exhibiting them. Added to this, of course, was the fact that after ten years I could see the watercolours in a different light, and in conjunction with pictures painted afterwards, they had at least become more comprehensible to me.”

Years Different Matter Facts Light Courses Ten Paper Overcoming Matter Of Fact Dealer Reservations Conjunctions

Author:Gerhard Richter

“Painting pictures is simply the official, the daily work, the profession, and in the case of the watercolours I can sooner afford to follow my mood, my spirits.”

I Can Spirit Cases Painting Profession Mood Officials Daily Work Painting A Picture

Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

Source: Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007

“Family photos, pictures of groups, those are truely wonderful. And they are just as good as the old masters, just as rich and just as beautifully composed (what does that mean anyway).”

Mean Doe Art Rich Wonderful Groups Painting Masters Family Photo

Author:Gerhard Richter

“When I paint from a photograph, conscious thinking is eliminated. I don't know what I am doing. My work is far closer to the Informel than to any kind of 'realism'. The photograph has an abstraction of its own, which is not easy to see through.”

Thinking Knows Kind Art Easy Painting Conscious Paint Photograph Realism Abstraction

Author:Gerhard Richter