Gerhard Richter, Explosion
From 17.10.2025 to 02.03.2026
Gerhard Richter has always been interested in both the subject matter and the language of painting itself, a veritable field of experimentation in which he has constantly pushed the boundaries, thus escaping any single categorization. His training at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts led him to engage with the historical genres of still life, portraiture, landscape, and history painting, and his desire to give them a contemporary interpretation is at the heart of the exhibition. Over the years, Richter has explored the genres and techniques of the pictorial medium, developing different ways of applying color to the canvas: with a brush, a palette knife, or a scraper. This exhibition brings together many of Richter's major works up to his decision in 2017 to stop painting, while continuing to draw. Chronological in nature, each section of the exhibition covers approximately a decade and shows the evolution of a unique pictorial vision, between breaks and continuities, from his early paintings based on photographs to his latest abstractions.