Negotiating the line between painting and photography, German artist Gerhard Richter explores the ways in which these two distinct disciplines engage with each other. Moving seamlessly between the two media, Richter’s wide-ranging practice includes black and white photography, paintings of photographic details, and paintings of colorfully abstract forms. Borrowing imagery from newspapers or family albums, he often uses painting to explore how photographs appear to capture only partial truths. In such works, his unique technique of blurring subjects makes complex moments of personal and social history appear abstruse, casting a sense of doubt on what they convey. Through his embrace of an array of techniques and subject matter, Richter questions the very nature of representation and perception.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide