For the first time in one exhibit combines portraits, created a master throughout his creative career - from 1960 to the present day

In the London National Portrait Gallery has recently opened an exhibition of portraits done by Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter) - one of the most famous contemporary artists. This is the first project of this magnitude that brings together works created craftsman throughout his creative career - from 1960 to the present day. On display are the early black-and-white picture, based on magazine photos, work based on personal photographs, the installation of the famous series «48 portraits», as well as a portrait of his daughter Ella, who, viewers will see for the first time.

Exhibitions of works by Gerhard Richter carried out repeatedly, but as a rule, their organizers and curators attempted to submit his work in all the diversity and always included in the exhibition of abstract paintings. The peculiarity of the latest draft of a portrait gallery is that it provides an opportunity to concentrate on portraits, and consider them in detail. Visitors can see 35 key paintings of the largest public and private collections around the world. The exhibition is organized chronologically and divided into several parts.

most perfect picture

In 1962, Richter began to create portraits and other works on the basis of photographs that he found in newspapers and magazines. Deviated from the abstract style in which he worked before, he had not felt the desire to paint, building on the observations and interpretations, and wanted to find a more direct and objective way the image of the world. As a result, he turned to photography, which, due to the fact that it is done mechanically, considered «the most perfect picture».

Heroes of Richter's works were not only recognizable characters, but also by unknown persons. This affected his unconventional attitude to portrait painting: «I think that the artist does not need either to see or know its model. The portrait should not express her soul, the essence or nature. And the artist should not show it to some special models of the perception ... »Thus, in the portraits embodied one of the main ideas Richter - that reality can not see or know, it remains hidden under the outer shell, and shows that the author .

Treasured pictures

Around 1964, in addition to pictures from magazines and newspapers Richter begins to use the images from family albums. Unlike gramurnyh and sensational media images, so beloved of pop art, these photographs attracted amateur painter of its simplicity and reality: «All of creating their own" cherished images: an image of family and friends that are stored on the memory ».

Interesting that you receive as a result of the picture is exactly convey the impression of a family snapshot, even though they greatly increased compared to the original. Whether the viewer sees the people on the beach, against a background of snow, or at home - he had all the time, a feeling that he looks at them through the camera lens. Also, Richter uses a reception «spreading», «lubricating» image, and thus again hinting at the fact that the picture is just not accurate reflection of reality, we see only the outer shell and inner essence remains hidden from us.

Continued uncertainty

Pictures, which Richter made on the basis of photographs, whether family or magazine pictures, do not mean anything concrete, they do not attract attention to a particular aspect or attribute. In this way the author separates the viewer from the constant human desire to find meaning in the physical appearance of people and surroundings, and an emphasis on external enigma. In this painting, which depicts people in everyday life, remain open to interpretation. Thus, these portraits convey the perennial human problem: the desire to understand the world and the inability to know anything for sure. Since mid-1960's this tension between freedom of interpretation and its impossibility in the works of Richter increases. The fact that these images seem at once mysterious and highly ambiguous, the author said: «You understand that does not depict reality. The fact that you create, transmit only itself, and therefore itself is a reality ».

Private photos

Around 1964, Richter began to work on portraits of art dealers, collectors, artists and other people with whom it is bound professional acquaintances.

Among the earliest works - three portraits art dealer Alfred Shmel (Alfred Schmela), one of which can be seen at the exhibition. It Shmel organized the first exhibition of Richter in Düsseldorf in 1964. At the same time, the artist wrote in the full-length portrait by Arnold Bode (Arnold Bode), curator of the exhibition «Documenta 2» 1959, which attracted the attention of Richter to contemporary art. In the same 1964, the artist has created several portraits Shnivinda Willy (Willy Schniewind) - one of the first collectors of his works.

Since 1966, the artist uses as a basis for the portraits are not only photos that have received from others, but also their own. In 1971, he wrote the artist Brigid Berlin (Brigid Berlin), famous because of familiarity with Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol), and in mid-1970's he made a very interesting portrait of the British avant-garde artists Gilbert and George (Gilbert and George), on the basis of a snapshot multiple displays.

Personal portraits

passion own photographs led Richter in the late 1970's to create portraits of family members and close friends. Initially, work on such intimate subjects very different from his earlier works impersonal. But his recent works in this area once again become the ambivalence that was present in the portraits of Richter at the beginning: they are open to the viewer and at the same time, impermeability and incomprehensible.

This is evident in the two portraits of his daughter, Betty - 1977 and 1988. The first is clear and obvious, the second is a soft, its main character to turn away from the viewer. The three portraits, IG 1993, the artist depicted his second wife from the back, while the picture Lesende (1994), one can see his third wife, Sabine Moritz (Sabine Moritz), delve into reading a magazine. Do not look at the viewer and the artist himself from his self-portrait of 1996, and his youngest daughter Ella at the painting in 2007, which exhibited for the first time. And yet, despite the fact that all these works are deeply personal, they are considered himself Richter, remain mere «visibility».

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: npg.org . uk , artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru