ART-PRESENTATION: Gerhard Richter-About Painting
Gerhard Richter is one of the most influential contemporary artists and is often called the renewer of post-war painting. Richter analysed the traditional painting genres (still life, portrait, landscape), the visual idiom of modern painting (e.g. monochromy, abstraction, grids etc.) and the challenges for the medium in our digital culture. He broadened the concept of painting in dialogue with other disciplines such as photography and sculpture.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: S.M.A.K. Archive
The exhibition “About Painting” coincides with Gerhard Richter’s 85th birthday and follows a distinct choice of motifs from the artist’s early work, where the analysis of the possibilities of visual representation and perception that were to remain a constant in his oeuvre were already tangible. On view are 25 early works, whereby his rarely seen curtain and window paintings provide an entry point to his artistic vocabulary. These works are echoed by a selection of five more recent paintings and sculptures, to mirror fundamental aspects of Richter’s work in the ‘60s with his contemporary artistic activities. In his early works, Richter laid the foundations for his pictorial concept, which continues to be of relevance to his present practice. Since its beginnings, Richter’s work has transcended the historically-grown separation of abstract and figurative painting. His works neither cultivate a complacent game of colours and forms, nor do they create an unbroken image of reality. This is especially the case with his curtain and window pictures of the 1960s, such as “Vorhang IV” (1965) and “Window” (1968), which form the exhibition’s core. Although the pictures refer to the revealing characteristics of figurative art that show us reality, at the same time they lack any illusion of realistic depth. With “4 panes of glass” (1967), jammed between ceiling and floor, Richter brought painting out into the room. This gesture underlines his conceptual approach to the medium in a period when Conceptual and Minimalist tendencies came increasingly to the fore. In pictures such as “256 Farben” (1974), Richter plays with colour as a material and with randomness, as important elements of his practice, which was also relevant to his scraped paintings. In pictures such as “Zaun” (2008), Richter metaphorically insists on the fundamental problem of painting: that the painterly space is not able to replace any outside reality, but is only an imitation, a depiction of it. From early on, Gerhard Richter used his oeuvre as a structural and metaphorical reservoir to produce new work. His “Inventory of Pictures edition” (1969) consists of a list of all the paintings Richter had done so far, whereas his recent “House of Cards” (2013) is constructed out of seven panes of glass, which lean precariously against each other while mirroring and reflecting their spatial surroundings. The visually overwhelming “Strip Paintings” (2011-15) are made of digitally recalculated and printed parts of existing paintings, recombined by the artist. In both their application of and formal reflection on the newest imaging technologies, Richter’s recent works reflect the technological shifts, such as virtualization and computerization from the 1960s to the present.
Info: S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, Gent, Duration: 21/10/17-21/2/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 9:30-17:30, Sat- Sun 10:00-18:00, http://smak.be
