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For Gerhard Richter, the confines of expectation and the structures of the generally accepted art world vocabulary are a motivation to create work in opposition. In his expansive career nearing six decades, he has continually questioned what it means to make art and how to view the world in a way that is ceaselessly new, delineating visual beauty in much the same way nature does— without the interruption of conceptual thought or stylistic decision. Not only do his images veer away from an artist's so-called obligation to maintain a single cohesive style, they seem to purposefully undermine the action of a style entirely, questing instead to propose this enigma following the inquiry about what art’s purpose is in life.
"I like everything that has no style — dictionaries, photographs, nature, myself and my paintings. Because style is violent, and I am not violent." He is investigating reality with the physical process of art-making that reveals a rich variety of renewed attempts to understand and to represent the surrounding world. From breathtaking photo-realistic paintings to monumental energetic abstract canvases to sculptures, photography and mixed media, his work maintains an untouchable stellar pursuit of the vitality of life itself.
He wrote extensively about his theories on art and life, and his pictures seem to be visual translations of these complex perspectives, mirrors reflecting infinitely into the human psyche and experience. “Since there is no such thing as absolute rightness and truth, we always pursue the artificial, leading, human truth. We judge and make a truth that excludes other truths. Art plays a formative part in this manufacture of truth.”
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