Biography

Born in Dresden in 1932, German visual artist Gerhard Richter is best-known for his large abstract works that see layers of colour applied over one and other and then scraped from the surface with a large squeegee. One of these works, titled Abstraktes Bild, sold at auction in 2015 for over £30 million.

Richter’s abstract style was the result of a career that began creating Socialist Realist murals in Soviet ruled East Germany, which developed into a desire to create blurred photo-paintings after fleeing to West Germany and studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His large abstract paintings do not belong to a singular movement, and instead take influence from Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Conceptualism.

In 2002 the Museum of Modern Art hosted a retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work, displaying 180 of his artworks. Today, he is considered to be one of the most important contemporary German artists.