To mark Gerhard Richter’s 90th birthday, the Kunstbibliothek is celebrating the artist with an exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie, devoted to a previously lesser-known part of his oeuvre: his artist books. The book, as an independent medium, was one of the painter’s central forms of expression early on – and Richter continues to experiment with design and text to this day, transferring his pictorial motifs onto the pages and developing them further there. Spanning three distinct themes, the show reveals insights into Richter’s practice, his self-image as an artist and the role of chance. It begins with the book “Comic Strip” from 1962, in which Richter sends a little man with a wide-brimmed hat on an adventure through ink and stamp drawings. Four years later, he created a catalog with Sigmar Polke that can still be read as a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek manifesto of a friendship. The exhibition makes the democratic potential of artists’ books directly tangible: Richter’s publications are presented not only in showcases, but also lay open on the table – to feel, leaf through and immerse oneself in.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Sophie Doering / Credit: Gerhard Richter 2021 (12102021)
Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Str.50, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map
Gerhard Richter: Künstlerbücher, until 29.05.2022, Tue & Wed 10–18h, Thu 10–20h, Fri–Sun 10–18h
Tickets 14 Euro, concessions 7 Euro
@neue_nationalgalerie
