1960s Quote by Gerhard Richter
“And then the work bears a strong sense of leave-taking for me personally. It ends the work I began in the 1960s (paintings from black-and-white photographs), with a compressed summation that precludes any possible continuation. And so it is a leave-taking from thoughts and feelings of my own on a very basic level. Not that this is a deliberate act, of course; it is a quasi-automatic sequence of disintegration and reformation which I can perceive, as always, only in retrospect.”
About This Quote
Source Interview: Art and Life, 2004
The artist feels a natural ending to a long project, a forced closure that feels both inevitable and involuntary, reflecting on the cycle of creation and dissolution.
In simple terms: Art projects often end naturally, feeling both inevitable and involuntary.
Key Takeaway
Accept the natural end of creative cycles.
Themes
art
creation
closure
Mood
contemplative
melancholic
introspective
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- exhibition planning
- artist retrospectives
- personal reflection
Key Concepts
existentialism
creative process
memory
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you recognize a natural ending?
- What does closure mean to you?
A Different Perspective
The ending may be more about perception than intention.
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