Gerhard Richter Painting After All

The exhibition gave a linear story of how Gerhard Ritcher developed the concept of his paintings from photo-realistic to abstract.

From the beginning, we saw Richter's monochromatic paintings based on images sourced from newspapers, magazines, and family photo albums. The blurred surface of the paintings not only commented on the different interpretations of "realism" between photography and painting but also gave the viewers some hints of Ritcher's interest in abstraction. 

In the series Six Photos, the paintings remain the same ambiguous quality as his earlier work but the repetition of the same subject across multiple pieces showed that he was pushing his work toward conceptualism. This phase transitioned into chromatic abstractions with less blurry surface treatments but more geometrical shapes and vivid colors and became much more extreme in 4900 Colors. Ritcher experimented abstractions with a certain level of control until he started a new series Cage which let the abstractions completely decided by chance. 

The exhibition then slowly brought the viewers back to a mix of earlier black and white paintings, photo-based paintings, and abstract paintings and ended with the mirror installation.  

For someone like me who doesn't have extensive knowledge of the history of painting and never is sure how to interpret an abstract painting, this exhibition was enjoyable and easy to understand.