Gerhard Richter: “Seascape” (1998), Limited Edition, Raster process on handmade paper

"I pursue no intentions, no system, no direction, I have no program, no style, no agenda." With these words, one of the most successful and versatile artists of our time—Gerhard Richter—describes himself. Born in Dresden in 1932, Richter left his hometown before the Berlin Wall was built and moved to the West to continue his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The young artist caused a sensation with his photorealistic paintings of motifs taken directly from his family album. In a time and environment dominated by experimental, abstract art, Richter's paintings caused a sensation. Richter's characteristic seems to be his tendency to seek out new modes of expression whenever a method he has explored has successfully established itself in the art market. After his figurative paintings in gray, he created monochrome gray paintings and the colorful "overpaintings" that obscured the original subject matter. In the mid-1970s, he embraced abstraction, with no less success than with his previous works.