Blog of the Gerhard Richter Archive

 

Now there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world.

SOURCE: Notes, 1966 (From Gerhard Richter's homepage: http://www.gerhard-richter.com/quotes/art-1)

I wish that would be the case! That astonishing quote is from Germany's top selling living artist Gerhard Richter (auction record price in October 2012 for Abstraktes Bild at £21m ($34m)).

Gerhard Richter is for sure one of the most significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. His oeuvre covers a period of nearly five decades, and he is well-know for his abstract and photo realistic painted works. I have also no doubt that he may be one of the contemporary artist about whom most articles, books, exhibition catalogues, videos, Cd's, posters etc. exist. They are all collected by an research institute that is located in Dresden, Germany, in his birth town: The Gerhard Richter Archive. It keeps and documents all books, catalogues, journals, articles, and photographs and so on that contain relevant information about Richter.

Gerhard Richter Archive blog, see: http://gra.hypotheses.org/1

Recently it has started a blog under http://gra.hypotheses.org/1, giving an insight into the archive's work and about ongoing developments about the artist like auction records, exhibitions, book releases... So, if you want to know which museum hosts the next exhibit on Richter: that's the place to go! Unfortunately, it's only in German!

During my last visit to Germany in 2011, I had the chance to see the two exhibition rooms in the Albertinum, Dresden, which were created by Richter himself. One room provides an overview of his work so far, including the 1964 painting “Portrait of Dr. Knobloch (41)”, which was purchased by the Gerhard Richter Archive, whilst in the other room new glass works created specifically for Dresden are presented. It was very impressive!

The Gerhard Richter Archive is a centre for research and communication concerning Richter's oeuvre. Very exciting, and an amazing research source: One section of the Archive’s holdings contains unpublished writings and documents, correspondence and photographs. Furthermore, the archive works on the catalogue raisonné of all of Gerhard Richter’s paintings and sculptures – an amazing project.

If you are interested in Richter's art and would like to look up a specific painting – or just get an overview - I also strongly recommend his own website:
http://www.gerhard-richter.com