104. Gerhard Richter

Übersicht - Survey - Katsaus

3 September - 16 October 2005

Gerhard Richter is the most internationally known German contemporary artist at present. He was born in Dresden in the former East Germany in 1932, but he moved to Düsseldorf in West Germany in 1961. He now lives in Cologne. Richard Richter has investigated the principles of modern art, from abstract to non-representational art, and has addressed the relationship between photography and painting.

The exhibition at the Sara Hildén Art Museum attempted, as the name of the exhibition implied, to give a survey of Richter's wide-scale oeuvre. The exhibition included paintings, watercolours, lithographs and photography as well as offset prints from 1966-2005. The works show Richter's multi-faceted interest in pictorial expression. His analytical attitude to painting - though he disregarded its regulations, he has used art history and iconography to his advantage - could be seen in the works chosen for the exhibition. Richter has investigated colours and their characteristics as well as different painting techniques. He has experimented with chance and inaccuracy. He is also known for his interest in photography. He has made paintings based on black and white newspaper photographs and on tourist photographs. He has sought ways to express our present world through the form of art, and has used documentary photography as a source of inspiration. He has made paintings based on photographs and has produced several different versions of these paintings on paper.

The exhibition was composed of two parts. Das Institut für Auslandbeziehungen (IFA) compiled the main part of the exhibition, which the Sara Hildén Art Museum had supplemented in cooperation with the Art Museum of Bonn. The exhibition was part of the Nordrhein-Westfalen in Finland anniversary programme. Übersicht - Survey - Katsaus was the Sara Hildén Art Museum's contribution to the 7th International Photographic Triennial Backlight 2005 event being organized in Tampere.

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Sara Hildén was on 16 August 2005. The Gerhard Richter exhibition celebrated this important date. In addition, on the lower floor of the museum there was a small documentary exhibition of Sara Hildén's life and of the different stages of the museum bearing her name.

3 620 visitors attended the exhibition.