German visual artist Gerhard Richter has exploded onto the fine art scene in recent years. Between major exhibitions, one-man retrospectives, and an impressive representation of his work in the most renowned modern-art museums, Richter is in high demand. Many have even called him “the world’s most influential living painter.” Born in Dresden, Germany in 1932, Richter demonstrated an early aptitude and affinity for artistry. He attended the prestigious Dresden Art Academy, which limited its students’ focus to the study and practice of Communist Realism. Gerhard Richter (born 9 Feb. 1932); German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. His art follows the examples of Picasso and Jean Arp in undermining the concept of the artist's obligation to maintain a single cohesive style. In October 2012, Richter's Abstraktes Bild set an auction record price for a painting by a living artist at $34 million. This was exceeded in May 2013 when his 1968 piece Domplatz, Mailand (Cathedral square, Milan) was sold for $37.1 m in New York. This was further exceeded in February 2015 when his painting Abstraktes Bild sold for $44.52 m in London... ...Nearly all of Richter's work demonstrates both illusionistic space that seems natural and the physical activity and material of painting—as mutual interferences. For Richter, reality is the combination of new attempts to understand—to represent; in his case, to paint—the world surrounding us. Richter's opinions and perspectives on his own art, and that of the larger art market and various artistic movements, are compiled in a chronological record of "Writings" and interviews. Excerpts: "I am a Surrealist." "My sole concern is the object. Otherwise I would not take so much trouble over my choice of subjects; otherwise I would not paint at all." "My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Richter) undefined

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