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3/6/2009

Gerhard Richter

Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid

Through 400 works, some of them never before seen

Curators: Sergio Mah and Markus Heinzelmann

As part of the PhotoEspaña 2009 photography festival, Fundación Telefónica is presenting the exhibition "Fotografías pintadas" (Overpainted Photographs) by the German artist Gerhard Richter, one of the most significant and influential artists on the current scene.

Fundación Telefónica is presenting a large selection of Richter's work covering the period from 1989 to the summer of 2008. More than 400 works are on display - some for the first time - aiming to give a detailed representation of the place of overpainted photographs in Richter's artistic production, somewhere between his figurative work and his more abstract work.

In "Fotografías pintadas" (Overpainted Photographs), Richter combines painting and photography to create a dialogue between the two art forms. These small images describe his everyday life, travel, holidays, meetings and walks, revealing the most intimate side of the artist but which have not found a specific place in his family album, possibly because they are not very specific, not very sharp or just because they are duplicates. He even uses images given to him by people he does not know.

Richter then uses a range of techniques to overpaint these photographs. Sometimes he drags part of the photograph through wet paint, and then carefully lifts it up so that the layers of oil paint form images and curves with differing densities and textures. In other works, he places the photograph in a carefully chosen place and uses the edge of a spatula to spread the paint over it. Or he might splash the image with paint drops. Other photos are submerged in diluted lacquer.

Richter is considered to be one of the most influential living artists and he has developed an extensive range of artistic production during his lengthy career, not limiting himself to one discipline but offering a great variety of styles.

Gerhard Richter, was born in Dresden in 1932 (in eastern Germany at that time). He left school to paint advertising and scenery, before studying at the Dresden Art School.

He painted a number of murals while at art school, but these were repainted for ideological reasons when he escaped from East Germany to West Germany.

Richter's first solo exhibition took place at the Schmela Gallery in Düsseldorf in 1964, and this was followed by further exhibitions in Munich and Berlin. By the early seventies his work was often on exhibition throughout Europe and the United States.

Between 1961 and 1964 he discovered abstract expressionism and a number of avant-garde movements which led him into friendships with other artists of his generation, such as Sigmar Polke. During this period he became identified as a German Pop Art artist, although for a brief period he lead a satirical variety of pop art, which he called "capitalist realism".

In 1997 he won the Praemium Imperiale, which was created in 1989 by the "Japan Art Association" to recognise the merits of artists working in different fields.

A retrospective of his work entitled "Gerhard Richter: 40 years of painting" opened at New York's MoMA in February 2002 displaying 188 of his works - the largest exhibition of a living artist by this gallery.

In addition to MoMA, his work has been exhibited at some of the most important galleries in the world, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Berlin and galleries in many other major cities, such as San Francisco, Chicago, Tokyo, Bangkok, Vienna and Venice.

Image: 8. Sept. 04. Private collection, Germany. Published in the book "Gerhard Richter. Overpainted Photographs" Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2008

Press office Tel: 91 5840646: prensafundacion@telefonica.es

Sala de Exposiciones Fundación Telefónica, Madrid
Gran Vía, 28 (Acceso por C/ Valverde, 2). 28013 Madrid
Hours:
thursday - sunday 11am-9pm, monday closed
festivity 11am-2pm
Free entrance

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