Interrogating the Image Born in Dresden in 1932, Richter came of age in a rapidly shifting political and cultural landscape, first joining the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1951, before relocating to West Germany just before the construction of the Berlin Wall. Enrolling at the Dusseldorf Academy in 1961 Richter found an energetic artistic community, one especially taken with a then-ascendent Pop Art, and the utopian possibilities explored by collective, international movements such as Fluxus and ZERO. By 1963, Richter had already started collaborating more closely with Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg, their so-called ‘Capitalist Realism’ movement founded in response to the rise of consumer culture and flood of visual media that started to dominate the cultural landscape in Germany during these years.
Gerhard Richter, Kerze (Candle), 1982, Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps, France. Image and Artwork: © Gerhard Richter 2023 (0030).
‘When I copied the first photos, I had the feeling for the first time that I was doing something special, and above all, something on my own. In the jargon of the day, it was ‘radical’. And those who saw it suddenly had no argument, except for the one that it was unacceptable simply to ignore the rules and copy a photograph..’ Gerhard Richter
The stark ideological differences played out between East and West Germany highlighted for Richter the contingency of such rigid stances, establishing in him a deep distrust towards any claims to absolute truth. This would deeply impact his approach to artmaking, and the sustained interest in the relationship between photography and painting which has underpinned his entire career. Insisting on the fundamentally illusionistic nature of painting and asking viewers to consider their own, mediated experience of reality, Richter began to paint from black and white family photographs and newspaper cut-outs. Now collected together in Atlas, Richter has continued to build and work from this vast archive of images over the years, offering clear insight into the role played by the photographic image in his practice. 20
Detail of the present work.