For more than fifty years, Gerhard Richter has proven his remarkable command of almost every style and genre of painting. From tender personal portraits to visceral overpainted photographs, romantic landscapes to monumental abstracts, this exhibition gives a detailed insight into the work of one of the world’s most influential living artists.
Exclusive to Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art, ‘Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images’ is the German artist’s first major Australian exhibition, with loans from public and private collections in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, including the artist’s own collection.
Exploring Richter’s endless capacity to shift form, this unprecedented exhibition is a testament to his technical virtuosity, rigorous work practices and unparalleled influence on contemporary art.
Among the artworks are the iconic portraits Reader (804) 1994 and Ella (903-1) 2007, still-life paintings including Two candles (499-4) 1982 and Orchid (848-9) 1997, and the evocative landscape Meadowland (572-4) 1985. The four panels of Birkenau (937-1–4) 2014, monumental abstracts painted over chilling photographic images taken in Nazi extermination camps, grapple with the national and global trauma of the Holocaust.
The exhibition is built along the spine of a long room devoted to ATLAS Overview, an extensive 400-panel extract from Richter’s encyclopaedic archival project ATLAS1962-ongoing, a collection of photographs, sketches, collages and cuttings that he has drawn on for his paintings throughout his career. ATLAS reflects Richter’s deep interest in the currency of images, and the artist has personally nominated and arranged the selection of images on display at GOMA.
When: 14 October 2017- 4 February 2018
Where: The Fairfax Gallery. GOMA Foyer, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
