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Basic data

Gerhard Richter is a German painter, sculptor and photographer who is today considered one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Richter's works are characterized by the consistent upheavals of his working methods and move between photorealistic works to monochrome and abstract paintings. In doing so, the artist always explores the relationship between painting and reality. 

Gerhard Richter for sale

Are you interested in originals and editions of the painter and want to purchase art by Gerhard Richter? Under Gerhard Richter artworks and editions you will find a selection of facsimile editions, originals, photographs and prints by the artist.

Gerhard Richter editions and prints

In addition to two signed and numbered photography editions by Gerhard Richter, we can currently offer you a further exclusive selection of facsimile editions and prints for sale. These were made in cooperation with HENI Productions since 2014. The aim of the cooperation between Gerhard Richter and HENI Productions was to produce high-quality facsimiles of Gerhard Richter’s work. These works are generally not signed by hand and represent an independent part of Richter's work. They are listed on the Gerhard Richter website as prints and were created under the artist’s direction and with his permission. These limited and numbered editions each have a run of 500 copies and are labelled on the reverse with the details of the work, the copy number and the publisher’s stamp.

Photorealistic facsimile editions by Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter has been using photographic models for his artworks and editions since the 1960s. Richter lent these photorealistic works their characteristic blur by stroking across still wet canvas with a dry brush. In that way, the artist not only questions the truth of his own pictures, but also sharpens the viewer's gaze.

Abstract facsimile editions by Gerhard Richter

His abstract artworks and editions make up another major part of Richter’s oeuvre. The painter deals with the materiality and intrinsic effect of colour as well as the inclusion of chance during the artistic creation process.

 

Originals and further works by Gerhard Richter

We can currently offer you the aforementioned selection of originals and editions for sale. Should you be interested in further work by Gerhard Richter, please do not hesitate to write us. We will gladly research about further work by the German painter.

 

Selling Gerhard Richter

You are in possession of Gerhard Richter original artworks and are thinking of reselling them? We offer collectors, dealers and galleries the opportunity to sell works via our online gallery. We are interested in handsigned and numbered Gerhard Richter editions, original prints or unique works in good condition with proof of origin or existing proofs of purchase. Please contact us, we will be happy to help you with a possible Gerhard Richter sale.

 

Requests

We are currently searching for the following artworks by Gerhard Richter on behalf of our clients (03.02.2020):

  • Gerhard Richter Facsimile Edition P 1
  • Gerhard Richter Facsimile Edition P 2
  • Gerhard Richter Facsimile Edition P 8
  • Gerhard Richter Facsimile Edition P 5

If you own these works and are thinking about selling them, please contact us.

 

Gerhard Richter Prices

Artist: Title: Price: Type: Size: Edition: Handsigned: Numered: Datum:
Gerhard Richter P7 Flow 8900 Euro Facsimile Edition 17.71 x 17.71 in limited edition of 500 no yes 22.06.2021
Gerhard Richter P9 Bagdad 7900 Euro Facsimile Edition 19.68 x 15.74 in limited edition of 500 no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter P10 Bagdad 8900 Euro Facsimile Edition 19.68 x 15.74 in limited edition of 500 no yes 22.06.2021
Gerhard Richter Aladin Contact for Price Facsimile Edition 14.66 x 19.68 in limited edition of 500 no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter P13 Fence 7400 Euro Facsimile Edition 14 x  10.6 in limited edition of 500 no yes 22.06.2021
Gerhard Richter P15 Flow 24900 Facsimile Edition 39.37 x 78.74 in limited edition of 500+ 2 AP no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter P16 Flow 24900 Facsimile Edition 78.75 x 39.4 in limited edition of 500 + 2 AP no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter P17 Tulips 5900 Euro Facsimile Edition 14.1 x 16.1 in limited edition of 500 + 2 AP no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter P18 Waldhaus Contact for price Facsimile Edition 55.90 x 38.58 in limited edition of 200 + 2 AP no yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter Zaun 8900 Euro Photography 5.9 x 7.8 in limited edition of 100 yes yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter Ulrike Meinhof 9900 Euro Photography 20.07 x 19.68 in limited edition of 120 + 15 AP yes yes 28.05.2019
Gerhard Richter Besetztes Haus 8900 Euro Original print 24.60 x 31.4 in limited edition of 100 yes yes 12.12.2019

 

Biography

Childhood & Youth

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden on 9 February 1932 as the child of Horst and Hildegard Richter. From an early age he was interested in art and began to paint and draw regularly. While attending the commercial school in Zittau in the late 1940s, he took a painting class at the evening school. When he graduated from secondary school, young Richter finally left Waltersdorf to take up an apprenticeship in a painting company in Zittau that made political banners for the GDR regime. However, after Richter refused to paint the staircase of a theatre, he was dismissed.

 

Richter's Dresden period at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden

In 1950 Gerhard Richter applied for the first time to the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden. However, after being rejected, he followed the advice of the examiners and then took a job as a painter at the state-owned company Dewag (Deutsche Werbe- und Anzeigengesellschaft) in order to increase his chances of being admitted to the academy. He applied again and was allowed to begin his studies in painting in Dresden in 1951. "It was a very old-fashioned, academic school where you learned to draw from plaster casts and nude models", the painter recalls. As a pupil of Karl von Appen and Heinz Lohmar, Richter studied in Dresden until 1955. His diploma thesis was a mural entitled 'Lebensfreude' (Joy of Life), which he created for the German Hygiene Museum.

In the years that followed, Richter worked at the academy as a master student and, in addition to state commissions from the GDR, also produced other commissions for murals.

 

Escape from the GDR & New Beginning in Düsseldorf

While Richter's life and studies were significantly shaped and influenced by the German SED state, he searched for an artistic position within the socialist art doctrine that was acceptable to him. A trip to West Germany in 1959 is said to have been particularly formative for the artist. Here he visited the documenta II in Kassel and was impressed by the works of international contemporary artists.

After long deliberations, the young Richter decided to commit 'Republikflucht'. On 30 March 1961, shortly before the Wall was built, he and his wife Marianne (known as Ema) were able to flee to West Germany. Only a few pictures from Richter's time in Dresden have survived. Either he destroyed many of his works himself before his departure, or he left them behind.

After fleeing, Gerhard Richter and his wife settled in Düsseldorf. From 1961 the painter continued his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, which was to be an important phase of artistic experimentation for him. As a student of Ferdinand Macketanz and Karl Otto Götz, he met Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo and Konrad Fischer, with whom he held several exhibitions. Among them was the group exhibition of 1963 entitled ,,Leben mit Pop - Eine Demonstration für den Kapitalistischen Realismus" (Life with Pop - A Demonstration for Capitalist Realism), which took place in an empty shop in the old town of Düsseldorf.

In the 1960s, Gerhard Richter increasingly explored photography and painting and their relationship to each other. It is current events, popular culture, as well as the media and consumer society, which are of primary interest to the artist. He also began to experiment with blurring techniques. Among the works he produced were ,,Tisch" (CR: 1), ,,Faltbarer Trockner" (CR: 4), and ,,Party" (CR: 2-1).

 

1960s

After Richter finished his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, he worked as an art teacher for some time. In the 1960s, however, the painter was able to establish himself increasingly in the art world as a painter. In September 1964, Richter's first solo exhibition took place under the gallery owner Alfred Schmela in Düsseldorf. The first renowned collectors recognised the newcomer's talent and acquired early works.

The year 1966 is considered a key year in Richter's career. After successful national and international exhibitions, Richter produced what is probably his best-known painting, 'Ema (Nude on a Staircase)' (CR: 134).

Also geometric abstraction now found its way into Richter's work as a radical cut and surprising element. In his "colour panels", which Richter still assigned to Pop Art and continued into the 1970s, the painter dealt with colours and their tonal gradations. In his city and mountain pictures of the late 1960s, the painter devoted himself to the landscape subject for the first time.

 

1970s

While Gerhard Richter was finally able to establish himself successfully as an artist in the 1960s, the following decade began with a series of 'grey pictures' in which he critically questioned the limits of painterly representation. In addition, he produced further abstract works that make up a large part of his oeuvre. In addition to the 'colour panels', he painted brown or red and yellow. In addition, the artist created one of the most important work cycles of his time with his '48 Portraits', which he realised for the 1972 Venice Biennale. This shows how Gerhard Richter constantly questions painting as a medium and tries to expose his figurative painting.

In 1976, the painter reached an 'artistic dead end', which was mainly due to the tragic death of his artist friend Blinky Palermo. It was probably his turn to the new medium of sculpture that broke him out of this stagnation.

At the end of the 1970s, Richter accepted a guest professorship at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax (Canada) during the summer semester, thus following in the footsteps of Benjamin Buchloh and Kasper König. During this time, he photographed a lot and was mainly concerned with visual phenomena. In 1979 he separated from his wife Ema.

 

1980s

The exhibition 'A New Spirit in Painting', which took place at the Royal Academy in London, was only one of many successful projects with which Richter began the new decade.

In 1982 Richter married the sculptress Isa Genzken, whom he had met a few years earlier as a student in Düsseldorf. Only one year later he moved to Cologne. At the same time as his abstract works, in the early 1980s he began depicting photorealistic candles and skulls, which today are among the painter's most popular motifs. Landscape is also a recurring subject in Richter's photographic paintings of the 1980s, as his 'iceberg pictures' (CR: 496/1-2) can attest.

Without question, Richter's 15-part cycle of pictures of the RAF members entitled '18. Oktober 1977' (CR: 667-674) can be counted as the most important work of the 1980s. In the past as well as today, this was one of his most controversial works, which also brought the artist great international attention.

 

1990s

While Gerhard Richter secured a firm place for himself on the international art scene, his recognition continued to grow steadily in the 1990s. Thus, comprehensive retrospectives were dedicated to him in Paris, Bonn, Madrid and Stockholm.

In 1993 he painted his famous oil painting 'Betty' (CR: 663-5), based on a snapshot of the back view of his daughter. In addition to his photorealistic paintings, however, he continued to produce a large number of abstract works. As his red-blue-yellow works (CR: 327-339) already suggested, the painter worked towards a combination of vertical and horizontal stripes, or grids, which overlap in the picture as several layers.

There were also upheavals in his private life. After Richter stopped teaching at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, he divorced his second wife Isa Genzken. In 1995 he married the artist Sabine Moritz, with whom he had three children. In 1996 he moved into his studio on the outskirts of Cologne, where he still works today. 

Increasingly, the overpainted photographs are also attracting more attention in Richter's oeuvre. The series of works 'Sils-Maria' or 'Firenze' allow the artist to renegotiate the pictorial language of abstraction with that of photography and figuration in a characteristic way.

 

2000s until today

After the turn of the millennium, it is above all themes such as transparency, reflection and opacity that the Dresden-born artist explores in the form of sculptural glass works such as the '7 stehende Scheiben' (CR: 879-1).

Richter's position as a painter in the international art world was confirmed by the comprehensive retrospective 'Forty Years of Painting', curated by Robert Storr and held at the MoMA in New York in 2002.

In addition, in the 2000s he produced further important painting cycles such as 'Silikat' (CR: 885/1-4) or 'Cage' (CR: 897/1-6). With the work 'September# (CR: 891-5), in which he deals with the events of September  11th 2001 in New York City.

Another major project was the design of the Cologne Cathedral window in 2006. This stained-glass window consists of around 11000 squares of mouth-blown genuine antique glass in 72 different colours. The model and motif for this were his colour panels of the 1960s and 1970s. 

The painter continues to deal with the materiality of colour and the exploration of abstraction. In his series of paintings 'Sindbad' (CR: 905), 'Aladin' (CR: 913, 915), or 'Abdallah' (CR: 917), he tries to fix the fleeting visual impression.

His most recent works include his so-called 'strip' images, which he produced as digital prints in 2011. These works consist of thousands of thin, colourful longitudinal stripes that stretch across monumental image carriers of varying thickness. It is interesting that Richter refers to these works as paintings, although they are computer-generated. Nevertheless, for the painter, these works convey an idea of what paintings can be in a digital age.

At the age of 88, the artist announced his retirement from painting in September 2020, explaining to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, (DPA) 'At some point there is just an end'. Even if no more large-format painterly works are likely to follow, which represent an enormous physical feat, the artist will probably continue to draw small-format abstract pencil works that take up the formal repertoire of his paintings. These drawings will not be integrated into the existing Catalogue Raisonné, but will be included in a separate catalogue intended for this purpose. 

His last large works are the three monumental church windows for the abbey of St. Mauritius in Tholey, which are listed in the Catalogue Raisonné under number 957.

 

Exhibitions

Current exhibitions

  • 18.10.2024 – 18.10.2026 Isa Mona Lisa - Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
  • 02.02.2024 – 29.06.2024 For What It’s Worth: Value Systems in Art since 1960 – The Warehouse, Dallas.
  • 09.12.2023 – 13.04.2024 Gerhard Richter - HAUSER & WIRTH St. Moritz.
  • 06.10.2023 – 24.12.2023 Masterpieces From The Collection Of Menard Art Museum – Menard Art Museum, Komaki City.
  • 14.06.2023 – 28.01.2024 Capturing the Moment – Tate Modern, London.
  • 01.04.2023 – 01.01.2026 Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin – Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
  • 18.02.2022 – 18.02.2024 something new, something old, something desired – Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

 

Past exhibitions

  • 29.07.2023 – 08.08.2023 Life in Pictures. A portrait of seeing for Rudolf Zwirner – PalaisPopulaire, Berlin.
  • 01.06.2023 – 25.08.2023 To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations in abstract painting – Gagosian Gallery, London.
  • 24.05.2023 – 17.09.2023 Herausragend! Das Relief von Rodin bis Picasso – Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
  • 12.05.2023 – 03.10.2023 Uncomed Painting. Art since 1960 from the Collection of Duke Franz of Bavaria – Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
  • 12.05.2023 – 27.08.2023 Vija Celmins I Gerhard Richter – Double Vision – Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
  • 08.10.2022 – 12.02.2023 Kunst und Krieg - Von Goya bis Richter - Kunst Museum Winterthur.
  • 15.09.2022 – 14.01.2023 MIX & MATCH - Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
  • 07.06.2022 – 02.10.2022 Gerhard Richter - The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
  • 14.05.2022 – 14.08.2022 Gerhard Richter - neue Werke - Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel.
  • 30.04.2022 – 16.10.2022 Ulysses‘ Dream – Fondation Carmignac, Hyères.
  • 10.04.2022 – 16.07.2022 Zero, Pop und Minimal – Die 1960er und 1970er Jahre – Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal.
  • 08.04.2022 – 07.08.2022 Farbe ist Programm – BUNDESKUNSTHALLE Bonn.
  • 02.04.2022 – 14.08.2022 Surprise – die Kunst der Monotypie – Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg.
  • 12.03.2022 – 11.09.2022 Nord – Süd – Kunst Museum Winterthur.
  • 12.03.2022 – 19.09.2022 Italia – Zwischen Sehnsucht und Massentourismus - Kunst Museum Winterthur.
  • 18.02.2022 – 18.02.2024 something new, something old, something desired – Hamburger Kunsthalle.
  • 29.01.2022 - 26.02.2022 Gerhard Richter. Drawings | Zeichnungen 1963 – 2020 – Sies + Höke, Dusseldorf.
  • 18.12.2021 - 24.04.2022 Gerhard Richter. Birkenau-Zyklus. Zeichnungen, Übermalte Fotos – K20/K21 – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Dusseldorf.
  • 27.11.2021 - 08.05.2022 POP ART: From Warhol to Panamarenko – S.M.A.K. Ghent.
  • 23.11.2021 - 13.03.2022 DIVERSITY UNITED – State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
  • 19.09.2021 - 14.11.2021 Das Ensemble schreibt das Stück. 70 Jahre heute - Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
  • 10.09.2021 - 24.04.2022 Mindbombs – Kunsthalle Mannheim.
  • 09.10.2021 - 10.01.2022 Minimal / Conceptual - Dorothee and Konrad Fischer and the Art Scenes in the 1960s and 1970s - Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura.
  • 18.09.2021 - 30.01.2022 CRIP TIME – MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.
  • 26.06.2021 - 17.10.2021 Closer to Life: Drawings and Works on Paper in the Marieluise Hessel Collection - Hessel Museum of Art & Center for Curatorial Studies Galleries at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.
  • 09.06.2021 - 19.09.2021 DIVERSITY UNITED. Contemporary European Art – Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur e.V., Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin.
  • 21.05.2021 - 19.09.2021 LOOK AT THIS - Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
  • 16.04.2021 - 15.08.2021 Serien. Druckgraphik von Warhol bis Wool – Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
  • 29.05.2021 - 12.09.2021 Big! - Grossformate Aus Dem Sprengel Museum Hannover – Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover.
  • 27.03.2021 - 07.02.2022 Ways of Seeing Abstraction – Works from the Deutsche Bank Collection – PalaisPopulaire, Berlin.
  • 26.03.2021 - 25.07.2021 Gerhard Richter - Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich.
  • 26.03.2021 - 25.07.2021 Gerhard Richter. Die umfassende Landschaftsausstellung – Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich.
  • 14.11.2020 - 28.02.2021 TRIALOGUEThe 20th Century Western Art from the Collections of Yokohama Museum of Art, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design - Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan.
  • 03.12.2020 - 30.01.2021 Cage Paintings – Gagosian, Beverly Hills, USA.
  • 01.10.20 - 24.01.21 Gerhard Richter: Landscape – Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna.
  • 24.09.20 - 20.11.20 Bewölkt. Der Himmel in der Kunst - vom Goldgrund zum Wolkenberg – Stiftung S-BC – pro arte, Biberach an der Riss.
  • 20.06.20 - 30.08.20 1:1 - Begegnung mit Originalen aus der Sammlung – Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen.
  • 08.05.20 - 02.08.20 Das Gedächtnis der Bilder – Kunstmuseen Krefeld.
  • 14.10.20 - 24.01.21 Gerhard Richter - Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna.
  • 21.03.20 - 04.10.20 Gerhard Richter: 100 Selbstbildnisse - Kunstmuseum Winterthur.
  • 04.03.20 - 05.07.20 Gerhard Richter: Painting After All - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
  • 08.02.20 - 03.05.20 Gerhard Richter. Neue Zeichnungen 2017 bis 2019- Gerhard Richter Archiv, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden.
  • 18.10.19 - 17.11.19 POSTCARD RELOADED - Kunstraum Potsdam c/o Waschhaus.
  • 13.09.19 - 05.01.20 BASELITZ, RICHTER, POLKE und KIEFER - Deichtorhallen Hamburg & Sammlung Falckenberg.
  • 28.07.19 - 08.09.19 Willkommen in Recklinghausen - Kunsthalle Recklinghausen.
  • 24.05.2019 - 12.01.2020 Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim CollectionSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City.
  • 24.05.2019 - 09.09.2019 Gerhard Richter. Itsas Paisaiak – Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
  • 20.04.2019 - 01.06. 2019 Gerhard Richter. “PATH” – Wako Works of Art, Tokyo.
  • 12.04.2019 - 11.08.2019 Baselitz - Richter - Polke - Kiefer. Die jungen Jahre der Alten Meister – Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart.
  • 09.04.2019 - 08.06.2019 Gerhard Richter. Overpainted Photographs – Gagosian Gallery, London.

 

Awards

  • 2018: Europäischer Kulturpreis Taurus for his life's work, Dresden.
  • 2004: Katholischer Kunstpreis, Cologne.
  • 1998: Wexner-Prize, Columbus, OH.
  • 1997: Golden Lion Biennale, Venice.
  • 1994/5: Wolf-Prize for Painting / Sculptur, Jerusalem.
  • 1988: Kaiserring, Goslar.
  • 1985: Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna.

 

Films

  • Gerhard Richter Painting, Documentation by Corinna Belz, 97 min, Germany 2011.

 

Literature

  • Gerd Richter 1961/62 : es ist wie es ist : it is, as it is, Dietmar Elger, Cologne 2020.
  • Gerhard Richter - Landschaft, Hubertus Butin & Lisa Ortner-Kreil and others, Berlin 2020.
  • Gerhard Richter - Malerei, Sheena Wagstaff, Cologne 2020.
  • Gerhard Richter - Spiegel, Bild und Raum, Dietmar Kohler, Munich 2020.
  • Wo Es war. Vier Briefe an Gerhard Richter, Georges Didi-Huberman, Cologne 2018.
  • Gerhard Richter, Michael Gauthier, Paris 2018.
  • The Truth is Always Grey. A History of Modernist Painting, Frances Guerin, Minneapolis 2018.
  • Gerhard Richter. Unikate in Serie, Hubertus Butin, Cologne 2017.
  • Gerhard Richter. Katalog Raisonne. Volume 2: 1968 – 1976, Dietmar Elger, Berlin 2017.
  • Gerhard Richters Birkenau-Gemälde. Amnesia und Anamnese, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Cologne 2016.
  • Theorie der Form. Gerhard Richter und die Kunst des pragmatischen Zeitalters, Florian Klinger, Munich 2013.
  • Gerhard Richter. Landschaften, published by Dietmar Elger, Stuttgart 2011.
  • Ein Maler aus Deutschland: Gerhard Richter: Das Drama einer Familie, Jürgen Schreiber, Munich / Zurich 2005.

 

Own Writings

  • Gerhard Richter: 40 Tage, Gerhard Richter, London 2017.
  • Birkenau. 93 Details aus meinem Bild „Birkenau“, Gerhard Richter, 2016.
  • Gerhard Richter. War Cut, Gerhard Richter, New York 2013.
  • Gerhard Richter. November, Gerhard Richter / Dieter Schwarz, London 2013.
  • Gerhard Richter. Patterns. Divided, Mirrored, Repeated, Gerhard Richter, New York 2012.

 

Collections

Germany

 

France

Spain

USA

 

Japan

 

Weblinks