The paint for the grey paintings was mixed beforehand and then applied with different implements - sometimes a roller, sometimes a brush. It was only after painting them that I sometimes felt that the grey was not yet satisfactory and that another layer of paint was needed.
Gerhard RichterIf the abstract paintings show my reality, then the landscapes and still-lifes show my yearning.
Gerhard RichterPicturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God.
Gerhard RichterI believe that the quintessential task of every painter in any time has been to concentrate on the essential.
Gerhard RichterWhen I first painted a number of canvases grey all over (about eight years ago), I did so because I did not know what to paint, or what there might be to paint: so wretched a start could lead to nothing meaningful. As time went on, however, I observed differences of quality among the grey surfaces - and also that these betrayed nothing of the destructive motivation that lay behind them. The pictures began to teach me. By generalizing a personal dilemma, they resolved it.
Gerhard Richter