Gerhard Richter 100 Pictures

Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Cantz Verlag, 1996. First English language edition. Hardcover. Fine condition. Octavo. 153 (1)pp. Original tan cloth with black lettering on cover and spine. "Richter's approach long appeared disorienting, incoherent, even absurd: the artist developed an extraordinary diversity of forms, moving from "photo-realist" pictures to others that seemed to run the gamut of abstraction, from concrete art to action painting. More than twenty years of hindsight were needed to grasp the dialectical movement that structures his research, determining its unprecedented attempt at an ontological exploration of painting's foundations and limits, and making it one of the most remarkable artistic experiences of the last three decades. The initial observations the "painting has never painted anything but itself" forms the basis of Richter's oeuvre. Complex, multifarious-ranging from photo-realist representation to gray monochromes-it constitutes the analysis, the methodical critique (the sublimation?) of all the forms that painting can take." (Preface). illustrated with 100 color photographs of Richter's paintings by Friedrich Rosenstiel, covering the wide range of Richter's oeuvre.