Richter, Gerhard

(born Feb. 9, 1932, Dresden, Ger.) German painter. Beginning in the early 1960s, Richter created paintings that were faithful enlargements of black-and-white photographs, often family snapshots and landscapes; he would continue this pursuit throughout his career. In the 1970s he also created monochromatic paintings, which explored the act of painting at its purest, while by the 1980s he experimented with an expressionistic, gestural style. Notably, Richter never allied himself to one movement—he has been alternatively described as a Pop artist, Minimalist, and postmodernist. Instead, he has consistently carried out a rigorous, personal exploration of the process of painting.

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