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. Gerhard Richter More Quotes by Gerhard Richter More Quotes From Gerhard Richter The grey paintings, for example, a painted grey surface, completely monochromatic - they come from a motivation, or result from a state, that was very negative. It has a lot to do with hopelessness, depression and such things. But it has to be turned on its head in the end, and has to come to a form where these paintings possess beauty. And in this case, it's not a carefree beauty, but rather a serious one. Gerhard Richter motivation example art Painting pictures is simply the official, the daily work, the profession, and in the case of the watercolours I can sooner afford to follow my mood, my spirits. Gerhard Richter painting mood spirit Without form, communication stops... without form, you have everybody burbling on to themselves, whenever and however, things that no one else can understand and - rightly - no one else is interested in. Gerhard Richter communication form I go to the studio every day, but I dont paint every day. I love playing with my architectural models. I love making plans. I could spend my life arranging things. Gerhard Richter love-making plans paint Painting is my profession, because it has always been the thing that interested me most. I'm of a certain age, I come from a different tradition and, in any case, I can't do anything else. I'm still very sure that painting is one of the most basic human capacities, like dancing and singing, that make sense, that stay with us, as something human. Gerhard Richter singing dancing age Art is the ideal medium for making contact with the transcendental, or at least for getting close to it. Gerhard Richter mediums transcendental art I don't how I can describe the quality that is only found in art (be it music, literature, painting, or whatever), this quality, it's just there, and it endures. Gerhard Richter quality literature art What attracted me about my mirrors was the idea of having nothing manipulated in them. A piece of bought mirror. Just hung there, without any addition, to operate immediately and directly. Even at the risk of being boring. Mere demonstration. The mirrors, and even more the Panes of Glass, were also certainly directed against Duchamp, against his Large Glass. Gerhard Richter glasses mirrors art I am ridiculously old-fashioned. Gerhard Richter old-fashioned In 1981, I think, for the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf. Before that I designed a mirror room for Kasper König's Westkunst show, but it was never built. All that exists is the design - four mirrors for one room. Gerhard Richter mirrors art thinking The paint for the grey paintings was mixed beforehand and then applied with different implements - sometimes a roller, sometimes a brush. It was only after painting them that I sometimes felt that the grey was not yet satisfactory and that another layer of paint was needed. Gerhard Richter layers different art Yes, we were amazed when that happened. It was a real joke to us. Konrad Lueg and I did a Happening, and we used the phrase just for the Happening, to have a catchy name for it; and then it immediately got taken up and brought into use. There's no defence against that - and really it's no bad thing. Gerhard Richter taken real art I believe I am looking for rightness. My work has so much to do with reality that I wanted to have a corresponding rightness. That excludes painting in imitation. In nature everything is always right: the structure is right, the proportions are good, the colours fit the forms. If you imitate that in painting, it becomes false. Gerhard Richter believe reality art I often need a long time to understand things, to imagine a painting I might make. Gerhard Richter might long needs Every museum is full of nice things. That's the opposite of before. It was important things or serious things. Now we have interesting things. Gerhard Richter museum nice serious important Gray is the color... the most important of all... absent of opinion, nothing, neither/nor. Gerhard Richter nothing opinion color important I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery... I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty. Other qualities may be more conducive to achievement, publicity, success; but they are all outworn - as outworn as ideologies, opinions, concepts and names for things. Gerhard Richter uncertainty achievement success time I don't dare to think my paintings are great. I can't understand the arrogance of someone saying, 'I have created a big, important work.' Gerhard Richter great understand arrogance work It's our culture, Christian history, that's what formed me. Even as an atheist, I believe. We're just built that way. Gerhard Richter me believe culture history When I begin, theoretically and practically I can smear anything I want on the canvas. Then there's a condition I have to react to, by changing it or destroying it. Gerhard Richter react canvas i-can want
