Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Gerhard Richter

Quote by Gerhard Richter

“The smudging makes the paintings a bit more complete. When they're not blurred, so many details seem wrong, and the whole thing is wrong too. Then smudging can help make the painting invincible, surreal, more enigmatic - that's how easy it is.”

Quote by Gerhard Richter

Create image

Author

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

You May Also Like

“Contact with like-minded painters - a group means a great deal to me: nothing comes in isolation. We have worked out our ideas largely by talking them through. Shutting myself away in the country, for instance, would do nothing for me. One depends on one's surroundings. And so the exchange with other artists - and especially the collaboration with Lueg and Polke - matters a lot to me: it is part of the input that I need.”

NeedsMeanArtIdeasCountryMatterArtistDealsTalkingGroupsPaintingDependsContactPainterInstanceIsolationCollaborationSurroundingsInput
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
Create image

“The truth... When they have a similar structure to and are organized in as truthful a way as nature. When I look out of the window, then truth for me is the way nature shows itself in its various tones, colours and proportions. That's a truth and has its own correctness. This little slice of nature, and in fact any given piece of nature, represents to me an ongoing challenge, and is a model for my paintings.”

WayLooksLittlesArtFactsShowsGivenChallengesPiecesPaintingModelsWindowStructureVariousToneOrganizedColourProportionTruthfulOngoingCorrectness
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
Create image

“Illusion - or rather appearance, semblance - is the theme of my life (could be theme of speech welcoming freshmen to the Academy). All that is, seems, and is visible to us because we perceive it by the reflected light of semblance. Nothing else is visible.”

ArtLightSeemsPaintingSpeechIllusionAppearanceWelcomePerceiveThemeVisibleAcademyFreshmanSemblance
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
Create image

“The urge to break with a tradition is only appropriate when you're dealing with an outdated, troublesome tradition: I never really thought about that because I take the old-fashioned approach of equating tradition with value (which may be a failing). But whatever the case, positive tradition can also provoke opposition if it's too powerful, too overwhelming, too demanding. That would basically be about the human side of wanting to hold your own.”

IfsHumansMayArtValuesSidesPowerfulBreakCasesFailingPaintingApproachTraditionOppositionAppropriateUrgesOverwhelmingProvokingOld FashionedTroublesomeOutdated
Book:Gerhard Richter: writings 1961-2007
Create image

“I didn't actually know what the protesters in the West really wanted. It was fantastic here, so much freedom, and that was what they were calling musty, middle-class, and fascistic, a bleak period. Bleak was what the GDR was, and it alone had adopted, almost unchanged, Nazi Germany's methods of intimidation and ideas about propaganda and the use of force.”

KnowsArtIdeasUseWantedForceClassMiddlePaintingPeriodsCallingMethodWestFantasticPropagandaGermanyMiddle ClassNaziAdoptedIntimidationBleakNazi GermanyUse Of Force
Author:Gerhard Richter
Create image