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Why is Gerhard Richter so famous?
1 Answer

Gerhard Richter is so famous because of his art. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German artists, and several of his works have set record prices at auction. On 1stDibs, explore a range of Gerhard Richter art.
1stDibs ExpertJanuary 27, 2025
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Shop for Gerhard Richter Art on 1stDibs
Cage: P19-4
By Gerhard Richter
Located in Bristol, GB
Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminium composite panel, based on the eponymous painting from Richter’s ‘Cage Paintings’ (2006) series
Edition of 200
Num...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
Materials
Giclée
Untitled Abstract Picture (one plate) - artist authorized print on GardaMatt Art
By Gerhard Richter
Located in New York, NY
Gerhard Richter
Untitled Abstract Picture, 2002
Offset lithograph on GardaMatt Art 250 GSM paper
Limited Edition edition of 3433
12 1/2 × 16 3.5 inches
Unframed
Accompanied by gallery issued Certificate of Guarantee
Printed on GardaMatt Art 250 GSM paper, this beautiful and colorful piece was part of a portfolio of loose plate reproductions for Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes works. Released during his exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art (Abstract Pictures) and the Museum of Modern Art (Gerhard Richter, 40 Years of Painting). It depicts Richters Oil on Aluminum abstract picture)
More about Gerhard Richter:
Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany. Throughout his career, Richter has negotiated the frontier between photography and painting, captivated by the way in which these two seemingly opposing practices speak to and challenge one another. From exuberant canvases rendered with a squeegee and acerbic color charts to paintings of photographic detail and close-ups of a single brushstroke, Richter moves effortlessly between the two mediums, reveling in the complexity of their relationship, while never asserting one above the other.
Richter’s life traces the defining moments of twentieth-century history and his work reverberates with the trauma of National Socialism and the Holocaust. In the wake of the Second World War, Richter trained in a Socialist Realist style sanctioned by East Germany’s Communist government. When he defected to West Germany in 1961, a month before the Berlin Wall was erected, Richter left his entire artistic oeuvre up to that point behind. From 1961 to 1964—alongside Blinky Palermo and Sigmar Polke—Richter studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he began to explore the material, conceptual, and historical implications of painting without ideological restraint.
Richter’s earliest paintings in Düsseldorf, stimulated by a fascination with current affairs and popular culture, responded to images from magazines and newspaper cuttings. Through the 1960s, Richter continued to address found and media images of subjects such as military jets, portraits, and aerial photographs. Notably, he reimagined family pictures he had smuggled from East Germany that included his smiling uncle Rudi, dressed in a Nazi uniform...
Category
Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
Gerhard Richter - Seestück (bewölkt), 1969
By Gerhard Richter
Located in London, GB
Gerhard Richter
Seestück (bewölkt), 1969-2023
Hybrid print in five colours on 260g Rives handmade paper
70 x 70 cm
unsigned edition of 500
Accompanied by the publisher's certificate...
Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Prints
Materials
Paper, Digital, Screen
Seestück (Bewölkt) By Gerhard Richter
By Gerhard Richter
Located in London, GB
Seestück (Bewölkt)
By Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter, a German contemporary artist, is celebrated for his diverse and innovative approach to painting, spanning photorealism, abstr...
Category
1960s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Seestück (Bewölkt) By Gerhard Richter
By Gerhard Richter
Located in London, GB
Seestück (Bewölkt)
By Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter, a German contemporary artist, is celebrated for his diverse and innovative approach to painting, spanning photorealism, abstr...
Category
1960s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Untitled - (Abstrakes Bild (809-4) Sotheby's invitation
By Gerhard Richter
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Sotheby's invite featuring Gerhard Richter's beautifully vibrant Abstrakes Bild (809-4)) printed on 3 layer thick cardstock. The front of the invite contains no text and would look g...
Category