--- title: "17 Way Quotes By Gerhard Richter" description: "17 Way quotes by Gerhard Richter. Plus more from Gerhard Richter and more Way sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb3/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-choose-depending-on-the-way-i-feel-ran_2167666.jpg" --- > [I choose depending on the way I feel; randomly, in other words. When I haven't done anything for a long time, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-choose-depending-on-the-way-i-feel-randomly-in-other-words-when-i/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb3/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-choose-depending-on-the-way-i-feel-ran_2167666.jpg) > [I don't believe in the reality of painting, so I use different styles like clothes: it's a way to disguise myself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-don-t-believe-in-the-reality-of-painting-so-i-use-different-styles/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bca/gerhard-richter-2249_believe_i-don-t-believe-in-the-reality-of-painti_2083159.jpg) > [The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-picture-it-does-not-change-it-is/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/572/gerhard-richter-2249_absolutes_the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-pictu_1183987.jpg) > [Cage is much more disciplined. He made chance a method and used it in constructive ways; I never did that. Everything here…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-chance-a-method-and-used-it-in/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/gerhard-richter-2249_art_cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-ch_2444778.jpg) > [It's our culture, Christian history, that's what formed me. Even as an atheist, I believe. We're just built that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that-s-what-formed-me-even-as-an/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/78c/gerhard-richter-2249_atheist_it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that_1165020.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) > [Grey. It makes no statement whatever; it evokes neither feelings nor associations: it is really neither visible nor invisible. Its inconspicuousness gives…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-evokes-neither-feelings-nor/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/708/gerhard-richter-2249_art_grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-e_2669316.jpg) > [Well, the beginning is actually quite easy, because I can still be quite free about the way I handle things - colours,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-easy-because-i-can-still-be/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d97/gerhard-richter-2249_airy_well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-eas_3130857.jpg) > [I believe that you always have to believe. It's the only way; after all we both believe that we will do this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believe-it-s-the-only-way-after-all/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba8/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believ_545264.jpg) > [Almost every work of art is an analogy. When I make a representation of something, this too is an analogy to what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-when-i-make-a-representation/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/846/gerhard-richter-2249_aesthetic_almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-w_2804803.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 truth... When they have a similar structure to and are organized in as truthful a way as nature. When I look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-structure-to-and-are-organized-in/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/818/gerhard-richter-2249_art_the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-struc_631959.jpg) > [I started doing 'figures', then, one day, all of a sudden, I started doing abstraction. And then I started doing both. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all-of-a-sudden-i-started-doing/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a8f/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all_3020562.jpg) > [A work of art is itself an object, first of all, and so manipulation is unavoidable: it's a prerequisite. But I needed…](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/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/gerhard-richter-2249_art_a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first_77845.jpg) > [Perhaps the choice is a negative one, in that I was trying to avoid everything that touched on well-known issues - or…](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/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e25/gerhard-richter-2249_action_perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in_109087.jpg) > [If, while I'm painting, I distort or destroy a motif, it is not a planned or conscious act, but rather it has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destroy-a-motif-it-is-not-a/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cab/gerhard-richter-2249_art_if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destr_3122063.jpg) > [Suddenly, I saw it in a new way, as a picture that offered me a new view, free of all the conventional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-picture-that-offered-me-a-new/) [Gerhard Richter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerhard-richter/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/gerhard-richter-2249_art_suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-pict_3018819.jpg) ## Other authors on Way ## 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/way/gerhard-richter/#itemlist", "name": "17 Way Quotes By Gerhard Richter", "numberOfItems": 17, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I choose depending on the way I feel; randomly, in other words. 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It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both in its way of informing, and in what it informs of, it is my source.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-picture-it-does-not-change-it-is/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/572/gerhard-richter-2249_absolutes_the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-pictu_1183987.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/572/gerhard-richter-2249_absolutes_the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-pictu_1183987.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/572/gerhard-richter-2249_absolutes_the-photograph-is-the-most-perfect-pictu_1183987.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The photograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute, and therefore autonomous…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Cage is much more disciplined. He made chance a method and used it in constructive ways; I never did that. Everything here is a little more chaotic.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-chance-a-method-and-used-it-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/gerhard-richter-2249_art_cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-ch_2444778.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/gerhard-richter-2249_art_cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-ch_2444778.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/gerhard-richter-2249_art_cage-is-much-more-disciplined-he-made-ch_2444778.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Cage is much more disciplined. He made chance a method and used it in constructive ways; I never did that…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It's our culture, Christian history, that's what formed me. Even as an atheist, I believe. We're just built that way.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that-s-what-formed-me-even-as-an/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/78c/gerhard-richter-2249_atheist_it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that_1165020.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/78c/gerhard-richter-2249_atheist_it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that_1165020.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/78c/gerhard-richter-2249_atheist_it-s-our-culture-christian-history-that_1165020.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It's our culture, Christian history, that's what formed me. Even as an atheist, I believe. We're just built…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "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": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Grey. It makes no statement whatever; it evokes neither feelings nor associations: it is really neither visible nor invisible. Its inconspicuousness gives it the capacity to mediate, to make visible, in a positively illusionistic way, like a photograph. It has the capacity that no other colour has, to make 'nothing' visible.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-evokes-neither-feelings-nor/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/708/gerhard-richter-2249_art_grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-e_2669316.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/708/gerhard-richter-2249_art_grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-e_2669316.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/708/gerhard-richter-2249_art_grey-it-makes-no-statement-whatever-it-e_2669316.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Grey. It makes no statement whatever; it evokes neither feelings nor associations: it is really neither…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Well, the beginning is actually quite easy, because I can still be quite free about the way I handle things - colours, shapes. And so a picture emerges that may look quite good for a while, so airy and colourful and new. But that will only last for a day at most, at which point it starts to look cheap and fake. And then the real work begins - changing, eradicating, starting again, and so on, until it's done.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-easy-because-i-can-still-be/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d97/gerhard-richter-2249_airy_well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-eas_3130857.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d97/gerhard-richter-2249_airy_well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-eas_3130857.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d97/gerhard-richter-2249_airy_well-the-beginning-is-actually-quite-eas_3130857.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Well, the beginning is actually quite easy, because I can still be quite free about the way I handle things…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I believe that you always have to believe. It's the only way; after all we both believe that we will do this exhibition. But I can't believe in God, as such, he's either too big or too small for me, and always incomprehensible, unbelievable.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believe-it-s-the-only-way-after-all/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba8/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believ_545264.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba8/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believ_545264.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba8/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-believe-that-you-always-have-to-believ_545264.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I believe that you always have to believe. It's the only way; after all we both believe that we will do this…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Almost every work of art is an analogy. When I make a representation of something, this too is an analogy to what exists; I make an effort to get a grip on the thing by depicting it. I prefer to steer clear of anything aesthetic, so as not to set obstacles in my own way and not to have the problem of people saying: 'Ah, yes, that's how he sees the world, that's his interpretation.'", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-when-i-make-a-representation/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/846/gerhard-richter-2249_aesthetic_almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-w_2804803.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/846/gerhard-richter-2249_aesthetic_almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-w_2804803.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/846/gerhard-richter-2249_aesthetic_almost-every-work-of-art-is-an-analogy-w_2804803.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Almost every work of art is an analogy. When I make a representation of something, this too is an analogy to…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "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": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The truth... When they have a similar structure to and are organized in as truthful a way as nature. When I look out of the window, then truth for me is the way nature shows itself in its various tones, colours and proportions. That's a truth and has its own correctness. This little slice of nature, and in fact any given piece of nature, represents to me an ongoing challenge, and is a model for my paintings.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-structure-to-and-are-organized-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/818/gerhard-richter-2249_art_the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-struc_631959.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/818/gerhard-richter-2249_art_the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-struc_631959.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/818/gerhard-richter-2249_art_the-truth-when-they-have-a-similar-struc_631959.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The truth... When they have a similar structure to and are organized in as truthful a way as nature. When I…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I started doing 'figures', then, one day, all of a sudden, I started doing abstraction. And then I started doing both. But it was never really a conscious decision. It was simply a question of desire. In fact, I really prefer making figurative work, but the figure is difficult. So to work around the difficulty I take a break and paint abstractly. Which I really like, by the way, because it allows me to make beautiful paintings.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all-of-a-sudden-i-started-doing/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a8f/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all_3020562.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a8f/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all_3020562.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a8f/gerhard-richter-2249_abstraction_i-started-doing-figures-then-one-day-all_3020562.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I started doing 'figures', then, one day, all of a sudden, I started doing abstraction. And then I started…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "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 objectivity of the photograph in order to correct my own way of seeing: for instance, if I draw an object from nature, I start to stylize and to change it in accordance with my personal vision and my training. But if I paint from a photograph, I can forget all the criteria that I get from these sources. I can paint against my will, as it were. And that, to me, felt like an enrichment.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first-of-all-and-so-manipulation-is/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/gerhard-richter-2249_art_a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first_77845.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/gerhard-richter-2249_art_a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first_77845.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/gerhard-richter-2249_art_a-work-of-art-is-itself-an-object-first_77845.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A work of art is itself an object, first of all, and so manipulation is unavoidable: it's a prerequisite…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Perhaps the choice is a negative one, in that I was trying to avoid everything that touched on well-known issues - or any issues at all, whether painterly, social or aesthetic. I tried to find nothing too explicit, hence all the banal subjects; and then, again, I tried to avoid letting the banal turn into my issue and my trademark. So it's all evasive action, in a way.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in-that-i-was-trying-to-avoid/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e25/gerhard-richter-2249_action_perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in_109087.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e25/gerhard-richter-2249_action_perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in_109087.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e25/gerhard-richter-2249_action_perhaps-the-choice-is-a-negative-one-in_109087.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Perhaps the choice is a negative one, in that I was trying to avoid everything that touched on well-known…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 16, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If, while I'm painting, I distort or destroy a motif, it is not a planned or conscious act, but rather it has a different justification: I see the motif, the way I painted it, is somehow ugly or unbearable. Then I try to follow my feelings and make it attractive. And that means a process of painting, changing or destroying - for however long it takes - until I think it has improved. And I don't demand an explanation from myself as to why this is so.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destroy-a-motif-it-is-not-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cab/gerhard-richter-2249_art_if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destr_3122063.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cab/gerhard-richter-2249_art_if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destr_3122063.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cab/gerhard-richter-2249_art_if-while-i-m-painting-i-distort-or-destr_3122063.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If, while I'm painting, I distort or destroy a motif, it is not a planned or conscious act, but rather it…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 17, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Suddenly, I saw it in a new way, as a picture that offered me a new view, free of all the conventional criteria I had always associated with art. It had no style, no composition, no judgment. It freed me from personal experience. For the first time, there was nothing to it: it was pure picture. That's why I wanted to have it, to show it - not use it as a means to painting but use painting as a means to photography.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gerhard Richter" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerhard-richter/suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-picture-that-offered-me-a-new/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/gerhard-richter-2249_art_suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-pict_3018819.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/gerhard-richter-2249_art_suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-pict_3018819.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/gerhard-richter-2249_art_suddenly-i-saw-it-in-a-new-way-as-a-pict_3018819.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Suddenly, I saw it in a new way, as a picture that offered me a new view, free of all the conventional…” — Gerhard Richter", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/gerhard-richter/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/gerhard-richter/", "name": "Way Quotes by Gerhard Richter", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/gerhard-richter/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bb3/gerhard-richter-2249_art_i-choose-depending-on-the-way-i-feel-ran_2167666.jpg" }, "description": "17 Way quotes by Gerhard Richter. 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