Gerhard Richter
German · 1932–
German painter whose restless oscillation between photorealism and abstraction, chronicled in The Daily Practice of Painting, embodies doubt as method — a lifelong interrogation of what painting can and cannot show.
Wikipedia ↗“Ich verwische, um alles gleich zu machen, alles gleich wichtig und gleich unwichtig.”
German
“I blur things to make everything equally important and equally unimportant. I blur things so that they do not look artistic or craftsmanlike but technological, smooth, and perfect. I blur things to make all the parts a closer fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.”
“Ich verfolge keine Absichten, kein System, keine Tendenz; ich habe kein Programm, keinen Stil, kein Anliegen.”
German
“I pursue no objectives, no system, no tendency; I have no programme, no style, no direction. I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes, or variations that lead to mastery. I steer clear of definitions. I don't know what I want. I am inconsistent, non-committal, passive. I like the indefinite, the boundless.”
“Malerei ist das Herstellen einer Analogie für etwas Nicht-Visuelles und Unbegreifliches.”
German
“Painting is the making of an analogy for something non-visual and incomprehensible: giving it form and bringing it within reach. And that is why good paintings are incomprehensible. The moment you can explain a painting, it has failed — it has become illustration.”
“Kunst ist die höchste Form der Hoffnung.”
German
“Art is the highest form of hope. I know this sounds sentimental, but I mean it in the most precise way: it is the evidence that human beings can create something that has no function, no purpose, no utility — and yet it matters more than almost anything that does.”
“Ich habe kein Motiv, nur Motivation.”
German
“I have no motif, only motivation. I have no idea what my paintings are about — I only know what they are not about. They are not about anything that can be said in words, which is precisely why I paint them instead of writing them.”