Gerhard Richter Quotes

I have always been interested in having people fall into the image and be aware of their reaction first, and then think about the style.

I've always been so surprised by how people interpret my photos in context.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

I mean, making art is about objectifying your experience of the world, transforming the flow of moments into something visual, or textual, or musical, whatever. Art creates a kind of commentary.

A style is not a matter of camera angles or fancy footwork, it's an expression, an accurate expression of your particular opinion.

Giorgio Morandi's paintings make me think that artists may not totally choose, or even control, their subjects or style.

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given to us to understand.

Not all paintings are abstract; they're not all Jackson Pollock. There's value in a photograph of a man alone on a boat at sea, and there is value in painting of a man alone on a boat at sea. In the painting, the painting has more freedom to express an idea, more latitude in being able to elicit certain emotion.

Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.

I never analyzed whether I had a style or whether I didn't. I wouldn't be able to describe my style or even tell if I have one or not.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

Visual storytelling utilizes both language and art to pass on the essence of who we are.

Much of the way we understand the world is through images. That's what I think good art does - it teaches you how to see the historical moment that you live in.

My approach to portraiture is conceptual.

I paint the way I spread butter on pumpernickel.

I'm trying to paint a picture of what I have seen and what moved me, as well as I can. That's all.

My pictures are devoid of objects; like objects, they are themselves objects. This means that they are devoid of content, significance or meaning, like objects or trees, animals, people or days, all of which are there without a reason, without a function and without a purpose. This is the quality that counts. Even so, there are good and bad pictures.

Those trying to explain pictures are as a rule completely mistaken.

There is always a subjective aspect in landscape art, something in the picture that tells us as much about who is behind the camera as about what is in front of it.

Photography is the product of complete alienation.

In every painting, as in any other work of art, there is always an IDEA, never a STORY. The idea is the point of departure, the first cause of the plastic construction, and it is always present all the time as energy creating matter. The stories and other literary associations exist only in the mind of the spectator, the painting acting as the stimulus.

Photos have no narrative content. They only describe light on surface.

What is art? A violet. Is that all? An artistic style is a living entity, a continuous process of invention. It can never be imposed from without; born of the profoundest tendencies within a society, its direction is to a certain extent unpredictable, in much the same way as the eventual configuration of a tree's branches.

Since photography gives us every guarantee of exactitude that we could desire (they really believe that, the mad fools !), then photography and art are the same thing.

The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt.