Gerhard Richter and abstraction: Bright, bold and blurred

Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden. His mother, a librarian, was also a passionate piano player. Just like her, the painter developed a strong sense of harmony. He started his artistic career with explorations of non-figurative color compositions, such as this work, on show at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam.

Major exhibitions have featured the works of Gerhard Richter, but none of them have focused on his abstract paintings, as the Museum Barberini's current show does. Abstraction takes different forms in Richter's oeuvre, from modifications on realist photos to pure textural paintings, such as this work from 1986.

Along with abstract forms, colors also play a central role in his work from the 1970s, following the tradition of his arts academy professor, Karl Otto Götz. Richter, however, also had black-and-white phases.

At the beginning of his career, Richter used traditional paintbrushes for his small-format oil paintings. He later developed other techniques, spreading and scraping paint over huge canvases.

This work is another exploration of the contrasting effects of colors. The oil painting from 1974 is an impressive 2.22 by 4.14 meters (7.3 by 13.6 feet). It is part of the permanent collection of the Bonn Museum of Modern Art.

In his early works, Richter used photos from magazines and newspapers as models. This work, produced while he was still an art student in Düsseldorf, shows an almost abstract snapshot of two cars on a country road.

This oil painting is also based on a photograph. Richter often picked his motifs from advertising supplements or magazines. Here, a series of open doors in slightly different positions turns into an abstract pattern. The artist calls this method "panel painting."

As an artist and critical observer of his time, Gerhard Richter often explored political issues related to capitalism and popular culture, provocatively building in references to over-consumption and Germany's Nazi past in his works. He also included himself in some of his photographic works, such as this self-portrait from 1970.

The Gerhard Richter paintings on show at the Museum Barberini, such as this one above from 1984, were borrowed from museums, large galleries and private collections. The exhibition "Gerhard Richter: Abstraction" is on show from June 6 though October 21 in Potsdam.