---
title: "4 Arbitrary Quotes By Gerhard Richter"
description: "4 Arbitrary quotes by Gerhard Richter. Plus more from Gerhard Richter and more Arbitrary sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/gerhard-richter-2249_abstract_i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-pain_463855.jpg"
---

> [I began in 1976, with small abstract paintings that allowed me to do what I had never let myself do: put something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-paintings-that-allowed-me-to-do/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/gerhard-richter-2249_abstract_i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-pain_463855.jpg)

> [The first colour charts were unsystematic. They were based directly on commercial colour samples. They were still related to Pop Art. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-first-colour-charts-were-unsystematic-they-were-based-directly-on/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/830/gerhard-richter-2249_arbitrary_the-first-colour-charts-were-unsystemati_518245.jpg)

> [Everything has a reason, including the selection of the photos, which was not arbitrary but appropriate to the period, its highs and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/everything-has-a-reason-including-the-selection-of-the-photos-which/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0fa/gerhard-richter-2249_appropriate_everything-has-a-reason-including-the-se_837279.jpg)

> [If I don't know what's coming - that is, if I have no hard-and-fast image, as I have with a photographic original…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if-i-have-no-hard-and-fast/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/090/gerhard-richter-2249_arbitrary_if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if_2482702.jpg)

## More by Gerhard Richter

> [Art shows us how to see things that are constructive and good, and to be an active part of that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/art-shows-us-how-to-see-things-that-are-constructive-and-good-and-to/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [They are specific places I have discovered here and there when I am on the road to take photos. I go especially to take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/they-are-specific-places-i-have-discovered-here-and-there-when-i-am/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, noncommitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape. But grey, like formlessness and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/to-me-grey-is-the-welcome-and-only-possible-equivalent-for/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/now-that-we-do-not-have-priests-and-philosophers-any-more-artists-are/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [Yes, we were amazed when that happened. It was a real joke to us. Konrad Lueg and I did a Happening, and we used…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/yes-we-were-amazed-when-that-happened-it-was-a-real-joke-to-us-konrad/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [A work of art is itself an object, first of all, and so manipulation is unavoidable: it's a prerequisite. But I needed the greater…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first-of-all-and-so-manipulation-is/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [The photograph is the only picture that can truly convey information, even if it is technically faulty and the object can barely be identified.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-photograph-is-the-only-picture-that-can-truly-convey-information/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [Perhaps the choice is a negative one, in that I was trying to avoid everything that touched on well-known issues - or any issues…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in-that-i-was-trying-to-avoid/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [Gray is the color... the most important of all... absent of opinion, nothing, neither/nor.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/gray-is-the-color-the-most-important-of-all-absent-of-opinion-nothing/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [All photographs are far more important than any painting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/all-photographs-are-far-more-important-than-any-painting/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [You can compare it to dreams: you have a very specific and individual pictorial language that you either accept or that you can translate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/you-can-compare-it-to-dreams-you-have-a-very-specific-and-individual/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [What attracted me about my mirrors was the idea of having nothing manipulated in them. A piece of bought mirror. Just hung there, without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/what-attracted-me-about-my-mirrors-was-the-idea-of-having-nothing/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [But it is also untrue that I have nothing specific in mind. As with my landscapes: I see countless landscapes, photograph barely 1 in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothing-specific-in-mind-as-with-my/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [My landscapes are not only beautiful or nostalgic, with a Romantic or classical suggestion of lost Paradises, but above all 'untruthful'...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or-nostalgic-with-a-romantic-or/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

> [I have always been structured. What has changed is the proportions. Now it is eight hours of paperwork and one of painting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-have-always-been-structured-what-has-changed-is-the-proportions-now/)

[Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/)

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