Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932, where he lived until 1961, studying first at the Kunstakademie, Dresden from 1951-1956, and then at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, from 1961-1963. Richter is considered one of the most important painters working today and his large and varied body of work has gained much international acclaim over the past five decades. Throughout his prolific history he has explored painting through a rich and diverse range of ideas that has spanned realist works based on found images and photographs, abstractions made with a squeegee, two and three dimensional glass works, abstract drawings, and overpainted photographs from images of daily life. His work has been immensely influential to multiple generations.

He has been the recipient of numerous distinguished awards, including the Staatspreis of the State Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, in 2000; the Praemium Imperiale Award, Japan, 1997; the Golden Lion of the 47th Biennale, Venice, 1997; the Kaiserring Prize der Stadt Goslar, Germany, 1988; and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna, 1985.

Gerhard Richter has been the subject of numerous important solo exhibitions, most recently at the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany (2018); the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany (2018); Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2017); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) Gent, Belgium (2017); Queensland Art Gallery, Brisben, Australia (2017); Espace Louis Vuitton, Beijing, China (2017); Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany (2016); the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany (2015); the Foundation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland (2014); the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2014); and Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany (2013). Since the 1960s he has shown internationally and has had a number of traveling retrospective shows including most recently one which traveled from the Tate Modern, London, to the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011-2012).