Gerhard Richter Quotes

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

That's where the most beautiful art is always created, when you have someone not worried about what the outcome is.

One of the things that's good for me is that I can go from one art form to another. Because I think if I had to write another novel now I would really not be good in my head anymore. It's too much. The frustration is so intense of knowing that this structure is right around the corner. Writing is a particular kind of frustration.

Abstract art is only painting. And what's so dramatic about that? There is no abstract art. One must always begin with something. Afterwards one can remove all semblance of reality; there is no longer any danger as the idea of the object has left an indelible imprint.

Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible.

I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you're painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.

Sculpture is made with two instruments and some supports and pretty air.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

My painting does not come from the easel.

When you make a painting, even abstract, there is always a sort of necessary filling-in.

At that point it certainly would be called abstract. That is to say, you had a model and there'd be one or two or three people there drawing the model but otherwise you had abstractions all around the room, even though the model was in front of you.

To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing.

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.

With the Larry Bertlemann portrait, I started with a photograph that I could use for it. I built the drawing's identity to serve as a graphic identity. After a number of sketches, I went into my own abstract vernacular of drawn lines and shapes to create the composition for the poster design.

By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life.

I draw what I feel, which is no more than doing my job.

You begin with the possibilities of the material.

I paint a slice of life, whatever it is that day.

I paint on the ground. I paint with sticks, with big paint cans, and whatever else falls in it. Basically, what I'm doing is capturing unbridled emotion and putting it on canvas. It's like capturing lightning in a bottle.

If I was painting a picture, I wouldn't want to take a picture of a single paint stroke. I'd rather show people what it looks like when it's done.

I had no intentions of going into sculpture but found that sculpture was just an extension of drawing.

Once my paintings are complete, the model no longer lives in the painting as themselves. I see something bigger, more symbolic - an archetype.

All this angst, all this stuff we all feel, is just tied to making art. It's so ancient.

When you start with a portrait and try to find pure form by abstracting more and more, you must end up with an egg.