Two Candles, oil on canvas, 150x150 cm, 1982. Image from Titien Contemporary Art Database.

Abstract, oil on canvas, 200x250 cm, 1987. Image from Titien Contemporary Art Database.

1991 solo exhibition scene. Image from Titien Contemporary Art Database. Gerhard Richter's "Abstract Paintings" solo exhibition was held at the Marian Goodman Gallery from January 26 to March 1. Gerhard Richter (born 1932) is the most active artist in contemporary German art. Under the critique of diverse stylistic concepts (abstract, figurative, and photographic), his complex appearance points to a change of contradictory appearances.

In the 1960s, under realism, he painted these blurred photographic models, for example: Girl Descending a Staircase, within the speed, time, space, and form of Futurism. Subsequently, there he inventoried and reproduced color samples "1024 Colors 1973". Then came the gray painting series "Gray No. 349 1973", which escaped the entirely non-mystical neutral monochrome paintings. Since the abstract painting "No. 444 1979", a lazy eye could see it as similar to Abstract Expressionism.

In the early 80s, using skulls and candles as subjects, also within a kind of blurred figurative imagery, it seemed to symbolize the emptiness of all things, that existence is merely a process and a natural phenomenon; his intent also seemed to emphasize nothingness. It is within these blurred, flowing images that time and space are metaphorically implied, distinguishing it on this point from Pop Art and Superrealism. He often emphasized a depersonalized neutrality - gray tones, which create unease, and because of the blurring, a confusing distance is established between the subject and the depiction. Later, he took landscape as his subject.

Simultaneously, a powerful expressive abstract painting was pioneered. Under his exquisite skill, he outstandingly displayed a "sensitive automatic technique" that is abstract but not entirely unconscious; the result often maintains a kind of distance from reality, with perfect form and color, within a varied space. Whether figurative or abstract, within the choice of subject and aesthetics, he explores a kind of metaphysical aesthetic.

In this new exhibition on the theme of abstract painting, Gerhard Richter exhibited a series of new works from 2006-07. In their apparent lyrical abstraction, with unrestrained color and stroke after stroke of different widths and thicknesses, within bright light and ingenious space, they display a sensibility of calm and passion. In the striking 2006 gray series "NETZ (Filet) (895-9)" 2006 and "GESTEIN (Roche) (903-3)" 2007, the rich, shifting black, white, and gray tones, the intersecting brushstroke lines, on the substantial, sensual color, are veiled with a layer of ethereal white making them more mysterious. Within these extremely abstract forms, there is more or less a skillful suggestion of nature.