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Gerhard RichterGerman artist
Date of Birth: 09.12.1932
Country:  Germany |
Content:
Biography of Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter is a German artist and one of the most renowned masters of contemporary painting. He was born on December 9, 1932 in Dresden, Germany. From 1948 to 1951, Richter studied at the Art School in Zittau, and then from 1952 to 1956, he attended the Higher School of Visual Arts in Dresden. In 1957, he married Marianne Eufinger, and in 1961, he emigrated to West Germany, where he continued his studies at the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf from 1961 to 1963.
Early Career
After moving to West Germany, Gerhard Richter began working with Sigmar Polke and Konrad Fischer-Lueg, manipulating advertising announcements and road signs in the style of pop art. For the next fifteen years, Richter worked at the intersection of painting and photography. His first exhibition took place in 1963 in an empty pavilion in Düsseldorf, and by 1967, his art was recognized with the "Young Talent of the West" award. In the 1970s, Richter created a series of minimalist paintings titled "Grey," consisting of flat and monochromatic surfaces. In 1972, Richter represented German art at the Venice Biennale, where he was the only artist to have an entire pavilion dedicated to his work. His first solo exhibition in the United States took place in 1973.
Exploration of Painting
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Richter continued to paint abstract canvases, sometimes colorful and sometimes only gray, using printed materials, amateur, and professional photography. The main theme of Richter's work, regardless of the style or subject matter, is painting itself. He explores its expressive means, addressing this theme at every stage of his career. In these explorations, Richter reflects his doubts about the existence of semantic and stylistic connections in art. His work combines the traditions of realism with the pathos of pop art, late informal painting phenomena, and the fashionable trends of abstract expressionism and photorealism.
Achievements and Recognition
In 1981, Gerhard Richter was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize, and in 1985, he received the Oscar Kokoschka Prize. From that moment on, his works could be found in all major exhibition halls around the world. The retrospective exhibition "Forty Years of Painting" held in 2002 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York became a sign of special recognition. The exhibition featured 188 pieces, an unprecedented number of works for an exhibition of a living artist in the scale of this museum. Richter's works are included in the collections of major European museums. In the 2005 list of the most expensive contemporary painters published by "Capital" magazine, he ranked first.
