Gerhard Richter, Neue Nationalgalerie, February 12 - May 13, 2012
In honour of German artist Gerhard Richter's 80th birthday, Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie is currently hosting the largest retrospective of his works to date. The exhibition feature highlights of Richter's 50-year career in chronological order, including photographically based portraits, abstractions and landscapes, as well as works on paper and his legendary "mirror" paintings.
Born in 1932 in Dresden, Richter's life was indelibly marked by Nazi rule and the Second World War, leading him to abhor any form of ideology for the rest of his life. After the war, Richter was one of the first German artists who dared to recall the Nazi era in his works. The portraits that he made of his own family members represented a unique mirror of the nation itself, in which one
could distinguish both victims and supporters of the regime.
Richter is known for portraying historical personalities and events, and has not refrained from depicting figures that are loathed by society, including four members of the notorious Red Army Faction, a West German left-wing terrorist group.
Potsdammer Srasse 50 10785 Berlin
www.smb.museum