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Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting
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Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting Hardback - 2010 - 1st Edition

by Dietmar Elger; Elizabeth M. Solaro (Translator)

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This fascinating book offers unprecedented insight into artist Gerhard Richter's life and work. From his childhood in Nazi Germany to his time in the West during the turbulent 1960s and '70s, this work presents a complete portrait of the often-reclusive Richter.

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From the publisher

Gerhard Richter is one of the most important and influential artists of the post-war era. For decades he has sought innovative ways to make painting more relevant, often through a multifaceted dialogue with photography. Today Richter is most widely recognized for the photo-paintings he made during the 1960s that rely on images culled from mass media and pop culture. Always fascinated with the limits and uncertainties of representation, he has since then produced landscapes, abstractions, glass and mirror constructions, prints, sculptures, and installations.

Though Richter has been known in the United States for quite some time, the highly successful retrospective of his work at the MoMA in 2002 catapulted him to unprecedented fame. Enter noted curator Dietmar Elger, who here presents the first biography of this contemporary artist. Written with full access to Richter and his archives, this fascinating book offers unprecedented insight into his life and work. Elger explores Richter's childhood in Nazi Germany; his years as a student and mural painter in communist East Germany; his time in the West during the turbulent 1960s and '70s, when student protests, political strife, and violence tore the Federal Republic of Germany apart; and his rise to international acclaim during the 1980s and beyond.

Richter has always been a difficult personality to parse and the seemingly contradictory strands of his artistic practice have frustrated and sometimes confounded critics. But the extensive interviews on which this book is based disclose a Richter who is far more candid, personal, and vivid than ever before. The result is a book that will be the foundational portrait of this artist for years to come.

Details

  • Title Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting
  • Author Dietmar Elger; Elizabeth M. Solaro (Translator)
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 408
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press, Chicago
  • Publication date 2010-02
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780226203232 / 0226203239
  • Weight 3 lbs (1.36 kg)
  • Dimensions 10.22 x 7.36 x 1.25 in (25.96 x 18.69 x 3.18 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 20th Century
    • Cultural Region: Germany
  • Category Biography / Autobiography
  • Library of Congress subjects Richter, Gerhard - Criticism and
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2009030840
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booklist, 11/01/2009, Page 16
  • Choice, 06/01/2010, Page 0
  • Chronicle of Higher Education, 02/12/2010, Page 16
  • New Yorker (The), 04/26/2010, Page 77
  • Publishers Weekly, 12/07/2009, Page 41

About the author

Dietmar Elger is the director of the Gerhard Richter Archive and chief curator at the Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. He is the former curator for painting and sculpture at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover. Between 1984 and 1985 he was the secretary in Gerhard Richter's studio. He has organized numerous exhibitions on modern and contemporary art and has written and edited their accompanying catalogs.

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