--- title: "16 Knows Quotes By Gerhard Richter" description: "16 Knows quotes by Gerhard Richter. Plus more from Gerhard Richter and more Knows sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f11/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_when-i-paint-from-a-photograph-conscious_612663.jpg" --- > [When I paint from a photograph, conscious thinking is eliminated. I don't know what I am doing. My work is far closer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/when-i-paint-from-a-photograph-conscious-thinking-is-eliminated-i-don/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f11/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_when-i-paint-from-a-photograph-conscious_612663.jpg) > [I don't mistrust reality, of which I know next to nothing. I mistrust the picture of reality conveyed to us by our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-don-t-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-know-next-to-nothing-i-mistrust/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/177/gerhard-richter-2249_imperfect_i-don-t-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-know_2507882.jpg) > [But it is also untrue that I have nothing specific in mind. As with my landscapes: I see countless landscapes, photograph barely…](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/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed7/gerhard-richter-2249_art_but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothin_226614.jpg) > [I do not mistrust reality, of which I know next to nothing, but I am suspicious regarding the image of reality which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-know-next-to-nothing-but-i-am/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b68/gerhard-richter-2249_astronomy_i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-kno_1628058.jpg) > [I would like to try to understand what is. We know very little, and I am trying to do it by creating…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-is-we-know-very-little-and-i/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ff1/gerhard-richter-2249_analogies_i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-i_2388275.jpg) > [I don't know what motivated the artist, which means that the paintings have an intrinsic quality. I think Goethe called it the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-which-means-that-the-paintings/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4dc/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-w_2331758.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) > [With a brush you have control. The paint goes on the brush and you make the mark. From experience you know exactly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint-goes-on-the-brush-and-you/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/gerhard-richter-2249_brushes_with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint_1490178.jpg) > [I didn't actually know what the protesters in the West really wanted. It was fantastic here, so much freedom, and that was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-protesters-in-the-west-really-wanted/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc5/gerhard-richter-2249_adopted_i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-proteste_1041740.jpg) > [My landscapes are not only beautiful, or nostalgic, with a Romantic or classical suggestion of lost Paradises, but above all 'untruthful.' By…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or-nostalgic-with-a-romantic-or-2/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/gerhard-richter-2249_antithesis_my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or_1016486.jpg) > [When I first painted a number of canvases grey all over (about eight years ago), I did so because I did not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvases-grey-all-over-about-eight/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba2/gerhard-richter-2249_art_when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvase_1330819.jpg) > [But I have a problem with the term 'light'. I never in my life knew what to do with that. I know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light-i-never-in-my-life-knew-what/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/154/gerhard-richter-2249_be-good_but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light_508064.jpg) > [I pursue no objectives, no systems, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction. I have no time for specialized…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-tendency-i-have-no-program-no/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/gerhard-richter-2249_boundless_i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-ten_1088367.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) > [That was a piece I did in 1963 with Konrad Lueg in a department store, in the furniture department. It was announced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konrad-lueg-in-a-department-store/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31f/gerhard-richter-2249_art_that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konr_2300732.jpg) > [When we describe a process, or make out an invoice, or photograph a tree, we create models; without them we would know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-an-invoice-or-photograph-a/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/db3/gerhard-richter-2249_animal_when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-a_871395.jpg) ## Other authors on Knows ## 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/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knows/gerhard-richter/#itemlist", "name": "16 Knows Quotes By Gerhard Richter", "numberOfItems": 16, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When I paint from a photograph, conscious thinking is eliminated. I don't know what I am doing. My work is far closer to the Informel than to any kind of 'realism'. 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I am therefore seeking something quite specific; from this I conclude that I know what I want.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothing-specific-in-mind-as-with-my/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed7/gerhard-richter-2249_art_but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothin_226614.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed7/gerhard-richter-2249_art_but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothin_226614.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed7/gerhard-richter-2249_art_but-it-is-also-untrue-that-i-have-nothin_226614.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“But it is also untrue that I have nothing specific in mind. 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It is merely coincidence that we can see stars with them, as well.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-know-next-to-nothing-but-i-am/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b68/gerhard-richter-2249_astronomy_i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-kno_1628058.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b68/gerhard-richter-2249_astronomy_i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-kno_1628058.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b68/gerhard-richter-2249_astronomy_i-do-not-mistrust-reality-of-which-i-kno_1628058.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I do not mistrust reality, of which I know next to nothing, but I am suspicious regarding the image of…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I would like to try to understand what is. We know very little, and I am trying to do it by creating analogies. Almost every work of art is an analogy.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-is-we-know-very-little-and-i/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ff1/gerhard-richter-2249_analogies_i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-i_2388275.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ff1/gerhard-richter-2249_analogies_i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-i_2388275.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ff1/gerhard-richter-2249_analogies_i-would-like-to-try-to-understand-what-i_2388275.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I would like to try to understand what is. 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I think Goethe called it the 'essential dimension,' the thing that makes great works of art great.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-which-means-that-the-paintings/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4dc/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-w_2331758.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4dc/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-w_2331758.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4dc/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-don-t-know-what-motivated-the-artist-w_2331758.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I don't know what motivated the artist, which means that the paintings have an intrinsic quality. I think…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "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 - then arbitrary choice and chance play an important part.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if-i-have-no-hard-and-fast/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/090/gerhard-richter-2249_arbitrary_if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if_2482702.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/090/gerhard-richter-2249_arbitrary_if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if_2482702.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/090/gerhard-richter-2249_arbitrary_if-i-don-t-know-what-s-coming-that-is-if_2482702.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If I don't know what's coming - that is, if I have no hard-and-fast image, as I have with a photographic…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "With a brush you have control. The paint goes on the brush and you make the mark. From experience you know exactly what will happen. With the squeegee you lose control.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint-goes-on-the-brush-and-you/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/gerhard-richter-2249_brushes_with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint_1490178.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/gerhard-richter-2249_brushes_with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint_1490178.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/794/gerhard-richter-2249_brushes_with-a-brush-you-have-control-the-paint_1490178.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“With a brush you have control. The paint goes on the brush and you make the mark. From experience you know…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I didn't actually know what the protesters in the West really wanted. It was fantastic here, so much freedom, and that was what they were calling musty, middle-class, and fascistic, a bleak period. Bleak was what the GDR was, and it alone had adopted, almost unchanged, Nazi Germany's methods of intimidation and ideas about propaganda and the use of force.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-protesters-in-the-west-really-wanted/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc5/gerhard-richter-2249_adopted_i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-proteste_1041740.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc5/gerhard-richter-2249_adopted_i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-proteste_1041740.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc5/gerhard-richter-2249_adopted_i-didn-t-actually-know-what-the-proteste_1041740.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I didn't actually know what the protesters in the West really wanted. It was fantastic here, so much…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "My landscapes are not only beautiful, or nostalgic, with a Romantic or classical suggestion of lost Paradises, but above all 'untruthful.' By 'untruthful,' I mean the glorifying way we look at Nature. Nature, which in all its forms is always against us, because it knows no meaning, no pity, no sympathy, because it knows nothing and is absolutely mindless, the total antithesis of ourselves.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or-nostalgic-with-a-romantic-or-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/gerhard-richter-2249_antithesis_my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or_1016486.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/gerhard-richter-2249_antithesis_my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or_1016486.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/gerhard-richter-2249_antithesis_my-landscapes-are-not-only-beautiful-or_1016486.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“My landscapes are not only beautiful, or nostalgic, with a Romantic or classical suggestion of lost…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When I first painted a number of canvases grey all over (about eight years ago), I did so because I did not know what to paint, or what there might be to paint: so wretched a start could lead to nothing meaningful. As time went on, however, I observed differences of quality among the grey surfaces - and also that these betrayed nothing of the destructive motivation that lay behind them. The pictures began to teach me. By generalizing a personal dilemma, they resolved it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvases-grey-all-over-about-eight/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba2/gerhard-richter-2249_art_when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvase_1330819.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba2/gerhard-richter-2249_art_when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvase_1330819.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba2/gerhard-richter-2249_art_when-i-first-painted-a-number-of-canvase_1330819.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When I first painted a number of canvases grey all over (about eight years ago), I did so because I did not…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "But I have a problem with the term 'light'. I never in my life knew what to do with that. I know that people have mentioned on some occasions that 'Richter is all about light', and that 'the paintings have a special light', and I never knew what they were talking about. I was never interested in light. Light is there and you turn it on or you turn it off, with sun or without sun. I don't know what the 'problematic of light' is. I take it as a metaphor for a different quality, which is similarly difficult to describe. Good.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light-i-never-in-my-life-knew-what/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/154/gerhard-richter-2249_be-good_but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light_508064.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/154/gerhard-richter-2249_be-good_but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light_508064.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/154/gerhard-richter-2249_be-good_but-i-have-a-problem-with-the-term-light_508064.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“But I have a problem with the term 'light'. I never in my life knew what to do with that. I know that people…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I pursue no objectives, no systems, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction. I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes, or variations that lead to mastery. I steer clear of definitions. I don’t know what I want. I am inconsistent, non-committal, passive; I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-tendency-i-have-no-program-no/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/gerhard-richter-2249_boundless_i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-ten_1088367.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/gerhard-richter-2249_boundless_i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-ten_1088367.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0a/gerhard-richter-2249_boundless_i-pursue-no-objectives-no-systems-no-ten_1088367.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I pursue no objectives, no systems, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction. I have no time…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I began in 1976, with small abstract paintings that allowed me to do what I had never let myself do: put something down at random. And then, of course, I realized that it never can be random. It was all a way of opening a door for me. 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 - then arbitrary choice and chance play an important part.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-paintings-that-allowed-me-to-do/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/gerhard-richter-2249_abstract_i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-pain_463855.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/gerhard-richter-2249_abstract_i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-pain_463855.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/gerhard-richter-2249_abstract_i-began-in-1976-with-small-abstract-pain_463855.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I began in 1976, with small abstract paintings that allowed me to do what I had never let myself do: put…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "That was a piece I did in 1963 with Konrad Lueg in a department store, in the furniture department. It was announced in some papers as an exhibition opening, but the people who came didn't know that it was to be a sort of Happening. I don't think it is quite right that it has become so famous anyhow. It was just a lot of fun, and the word itself, Capitalist Realism, hit just right. But it wasn't such a big deal.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konrad-lueg-in-a-department-store/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31f/gerhard-richter-2249_art_that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konr_2300732.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31f/gerhard-richter-2249_art_that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konr_2300732.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31f/gerhard-richter-2249_art_that-was-a-piece-i-did-in-1963-with-konr_2300732.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“That was a piece I did in 1963 with Konrad Lueg in a department store, in the furniture department. It was…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 16, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When we describe a process, or make out an invoice, or photograph a tree, we create models; without them we would know nothing of reality and would be animals.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-an-invoice-or-photograph-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/db3/gerhard-richter-2249_animal_when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-a_871395.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/db3/gerhard-richter-2249_animal_when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-a_871395.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/db3/gerhard-richter-2249_animal_when-we-describe-a-process-or-make-out-a_871395.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When we describe a process, or make out an invoice, or photograph a tree, we create models; without them we…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knows/gerhard-richter/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knows/gerhard-richter/", "name": "Knows Quotes by Gerhard Richter", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knows/gerhard-richter/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f11/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_when-i-paint-from-a-photograph-conscious_612663.jpg" }, "description": "16 Knows quotes by Gerhard Richter. 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