Source : http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gerhardrichter/default.shtm
The Tate Modern recently launched a new exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s work, which will run until January. Richter’s abstracts are some of my favourite paintings, and I’m really excited to be able to go and see some of his work in person. The exhibitions coincides with the artists’ 80th birthday, and will show paintings spanning nearly 5 decades of artistic practice.
Along with his colorful and textural abstracts, Richter has created work covering a wide range of moods and styles. He really has been a chameleon of the art world, and has successfully challenged the notion that artists need to stick to a singular cohesive style throughout their career.
Gerhard Richter Confrontation 1 1988 Oil on canvas, 112 x 102 cm © Gerhard Richter/Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
Gerhard Richter:Schädel mit Kerze (Candle with Skull), 1983 © Collection Böckmann. Source : http://premierartscene.com/magazine/richter-from-private-collections/
With his moody black and white portraits, created in the 1960s and 1970s, Richter was one of the pioneers of a particular style of photorealism. Rather than just copying a photograph exactly, his portraits use blurring and distortion to take them to a different level as challenging art pieces. In the 1908s, he created a series of memento mori style works. These are very simple paintings with candles and skulls in a blank room. Realistic rather than photorealistic, they use shadows and soft tones to echo the memento mori paintings of previous centuries, such as those by the artists of the Dutch Golden Age around 1650.
Richter’s textural abstracts began as black, white and greyscale works, and then developed their rich colour over the course of his practice. He creates them by building up the paint in layers with a squeegee, and describes the process as “letting a thing come, rather than creating it.” The paintings have a partuclaur quality of depth and space, and often appear to be semi-abstract landsscapes, evern though they have been painted with no representational source in mind.
Gerhard Richter, Abstract Painting, Lake, 1997 (Source: contemporary-art-blog, via paintworks)
The Tate Modern’s Gerhard Richter exhibition runs until January 8th. Visiting information is at the Tate Modern website.
Tags: art, artist, painter, Painting
Posted in Artist Corner, Be Inspired, Exhibitions, Painting | Comments (0)
