You don't have to be an afficionado of contemporary poetry, or an art lover, to appreciate the many delights housed within the aluminum slip case of this work. But if you happen to be either, or both, this book is a must.

The "book" has, in this case, evolved well beyond the concept of an art tome. The joining of music, poetry and lovingly accurate reproductions under one cover makes the circumnavigation of this opus is a particularly rich eexperience. Which is not to say that listening to the music , or dipping into one poem, is not an entirely satisfying moment by itself.

Be prepared, however: this gesamtwerk is big, and will not fit into an ordinary bookcase! The paintings being reproduced to scale has dictated the extra large format, but the extraordinarily accurate pictorial results are worth the extra weight.

This is a gorgeous book by a man who in the future will be credited with debunking all the art critics who since the 1950s have been shouting to themselves that Realism is dead, or the ones that still shout "painting is dead." Gerhard Richter breaks all the rules of "being an artist." He has worked in a variety of styles, refusing to produce a "style" as often artists are supposed to do. In his ealy photorealistic -paintings Richter copied ordinary, found images onto canvas, but gave them an indistinct appearance. Again, by working directly from photographs, he manages to debunk all the criticism that such techniques often bring. This subversive realism is now more evident than ever, in these later, almost fuzzy works that still manage to knock the visual senses as if shouting: "Long Live Painting - Long Live Realism!"

I've only recently become acquainted with the range of Gerhard Richter's work, but the series of eight abstract paintings which are being celebrated here are enough to justify his reputation for me, and the sheer richness and resolution of their presentation in this book is of a standard I've never come across anywhere. Elegant, sensuous and gorgeous, this is more than a 'typical' art book in manners large and small; includes insightful essays by writers like Dave Hickey, poetry, and a CD by Bill Frisell with a string trio that's a lot more quirky and edgy than his recent stuff, in a good way (no banjos). The book's editor, David Breskin, has done an amazing job - the aluminum slipcase is a pretty sharp touch, too.

If your are a working and/or just love visual arts, this book is a MUST to have. It is a pure pleasure to see these sequences and collages of photos arranged carefully and for my eye "perfect" - since I shoot still-sequences for the past 4 years. It's not just a coffee table book - it's to literally "inhale" its art.

This is a nice survey of Richter's recent abstract paintings. It is packed with beautiful color plates, but it doesn't have much comentary, just a couple of short essays. If your looking for more information about Richter's work check out 'The Daily Practice of Painting : Writings and Interviews 1960-1993'.

The book also includes a Catalogue Raisonne of the paintings from 1993-1998, but many of the reproductions in the Catalogue too small to make out because they are all sized in proportion to the actual size of the work. The plates in the rest of the book are excellent though.

this is a summary of richter's recent oil paintings, with two critical essays. Although a few pre '90s paintings are shown (e.g. zwie grau, schaedel, some abstractes bild), most of the book covers the abstracted bilds and photo-paintings of 95-96. The 'realistic' works include several landscapes, lesende, works with flowers and the most excellent S. mit kind series. Also a rare self-portrait (836-10, 1996). Essays are 'the woman the child and the painting' by guy tosatto, and 'there is no there. gerhard richter at the carre d'Art in Nimes,' by Birgit Pelzer. printing is nice. we read that the artist was involved in the production of this very good buy.

I bought this last summer at MoMA in NYC and it showed me not only a nice chronology of Richter's paintings but it also had select quotes from Richter that read very well next to the plates and gave small insight into his work and methods.

i purchased this book recently and was very pleased with richter's abstract watercolors.

richter does not fall into the anglo-american tradition of watercolor. and, his watercolors tend to be small.

I really enjoyed this book. I bought it at the Ricther exhibit I just saw at the SFMOMA a few weeks ago. I wasn't familiar with his work until then. I was awed at the different themes and usage of what would seem to be everyday normal moments caught with an unearthly feel. He's even using music and video installations now. This book does uses his collected notes, interviews and letters as an insight into the thinking behind the artist. Richter's philosophy of not subscribing to any ideaology is very evident here. He seems especially disdainfull of Communism as it does not afford the freedom for individual creation. He's been grasping to make sense of his art all his life and its what has been driving him. You can see it in his paintings. The work itself becomes a question. Why this subject. What is relevant? What is the importance. Why this style of painting? What is the meaning of the photograph it's based on? The book is chock full of interesting ideas on art, art history and the current state of society and the culture. Even if you don't agree with it all - it's still a very interesting read. I do recommend that you first familiarize yourself with Richter's various works first. You'll enjoy the book all the more.

Ironically, this book - that decries idealogies - could be a Bible, speaking almost always on deeply conceptual issues not only of artmaking but of living. Fortunately, for those with a pulse, there is sufficient comic relief in the form of absurdities, parodies and self-aggrandizement.

It is tempting to skip the early writing and go straight to the wisdom through maturity (the notes are chronologically arranged.) That would be unfortunate for there are tremendous nuggets scattered among the contradictions in the earlier pages.

If you're familiar with his work, much will be self-evident; but I found surprisingly astute reflections from the "young" Richter (ie:'66): "I like continual uncertainty". On the issue of changing style/form every 3-4 years, Richter claims that "historically speaking, changeable artists are a growing phenomenon". Even back in '77, he says "Painting has a brilliant future. Hasn't it?" Strong words, and brave for the time. If only the irascible Kuspit had read this before he slammed Richter (as "profoundly nihilistic") and believed such statements as "I want pictorial content without sentiment, but I want it as human as possible" or "the pleasure of painting proves the necessity of it".

I hope future editions of this include the charming interview with Robert Storr in Art In America Jan. 2002 - which clued me into the fact that Richter had a set of writings out. There are a few photos that show the various painting forms he's explored so if you don't know his work, you can get some idea what all the discussion's about.

A wildly compelling book that should appeal to artists, philosophers and other thoughtful people. It contains journal entries, interviews, and musings of Richer's everyday struggles to discover what it means to be an artist. I tried to start at the beginning, but found it much more interesting to open the book to a random passage and each time discovered thought-provoking ideas. At first glance, his ideas and declarations often seem quite ludicrous, but if you take one moment to consider his thoughts, his genius is revealed. His prose (sometimes scathing) is extremeley amusing when read aloud as it was by a group of artists working on a large project. We took turns reading a passage and then found ourselves discussing (and quoting) it for days. His writings include the impact of his early life on his artwork, critiques of other artist's work (Anslem Keiffer does not fare well here!), keen observations and interpretations from studying art and the human condition in modern society as well as ideas, form, materials, and content in art. I found that it opened up a new way of thinking about my own work and why I am driven to create. I highly recommend it.

This was a gorgeous show, but kind of conservative -- made Richter into the new "master" of painting, sidelines all his weirder and more "conceptual" work. And why does Robert Storr have to try so hard to put himself at the center of everything?? I saw the Richter show in SF around 1990, so no, this is NOT "the frist American retrospective." And Storr's dismissive (and often really uninformed) treatment of other critics (especially German critic Benjamin Buchloh, who's written on Richter for like, decades) shows what a limited writer and scholar Storr really is. But for better or worse, the pictures are great, and a lot of the other material is really good.

A lot of words been written lately about the 'unexpected revival of painting' fueled by the current Gerhardt Richter painting retrospective captured in this book. It seems, according to some influential art scribes writing in the trail of this traveling exhibition, that the much heralded demise of painting, much like Mark Twain's death, has been greatly exaggerated. Showcasing about 120 works over a 40-year period, this book is one of the most comprehensive retrospectives ever mounted about a contemporary painter in recent memory, and that by itself is a strong enough reason to buy it. However, it is what has been proven by Richter's career and accomplishments, and unexpected stature in the art world (Sotheby's recently dubbed him the 'most influential living artist in the world') and now driven home here, that makes this a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn some lessons about the contemporary art world. You see, Richter doesn't fit the formula for success that many art curators and influential critics and other art powers-that-be have carefully crafted in the rarified atmospheres of the upper crusts of the art world. In fact, Richter breaks every 'rule' that often starts being pressed upon 18-year old art students and then is hammered home in reviews and lectures by many contemporary art critics and curators. Rules like 'you better have your own recognizable style!' or 'only new is good' and the oddest rule of all: 'painting is dead!' But Richter is not only a painter in an era forced to focus on video artists, performance stars and PhotoShop wonders, but also Richter wanders from style to style with an ease and speed that makes this book a lesson on half a dozen art movements of the last century beautifully continued onto the current one. Thumb through the pages here and you'll soon discover that Richter is as much as ease with photorealism ' some ultra sharp and some foggy in detail -- as he is with pure abstraction and with romantic paintings of pretty clouds and scenic waterfalls. This is an artist who is not just happy with thumbing his nose at the well-enforced rule that a good artist has to have a clearly identifiable style and do something 'new', but who also seems intent on destroying the other forced formulas of the modern art world: he copies other artists' works, works directly from photographs, blah, blah, blah ' all sins that would make all my art professors and most art critics sigh in disgust. But above all, Richter paints, and he paints in a time when painting has been dismissed as 'ailing' and 'ancient.' New is good, technology is good' painting is dead.' Why does Richter paint? Doesn't he get it? NOPE!! It's because it is all about painting! And managing to make fools of critics who forget that their job is to follow the artist ' not to lead the arts. What those who consider painting an 'ailing' form will never understand (mostly because they are not painters), is that Richter can't and won't stop painting, because through his veins runs the same intoxicating venom that fueled their ancestral kin in the caves of Altamira and which will continue to drive painters long after today's critics and curators are forgotten dust. This book shouts: Art does not have to be 'new' to be good, and technology is not the only venue to deliver great new contemporary art - it also continues to prove that painting will never die.

Gerhard Richter is one of the finest Pop artists of the 20th century. ("Pop" because he is highly non-ideological, even depicting ideological subjects in a completely neutral fashion. His works are plain-old nice to look at.) This book is a beautiful representation of his work, chock-full of his painting, from his earliest works to his most recent, printed nicely in full color. It is specifically the catalog for the exhibit of his works at MOMA in early 2002 (which this reviewer attended, with great delight), but the exhibition was so broad, with a wide range of paintings across Richter's full career, the number of paintings in this book is satisfyingly broad.

Richter has dabbled in many styles, and continues to produce works to this day, but most often works with abstraction or semi-abstraction. His sense of color is wonderful, and his sense of vision is superb, by which I mean his paintings force you to stop and stare for long periods of time. Many of his paintings are like photographs taken just slightly out of focus. (He uses a projector, but modifies the image just enough to make you know a human did the work.) Their beauty truly makes you look long at them, and their skill makes you wonder how a person can achieve such subtle effects of lighting in painted oil on canvas.

This book also contains good explanations of Richter's work, but these can become tiresome at times. The worst is that the reviews and the plates are not indexed very well, so it is frustratingly difficult to find a given work, either in the list of plates, or in the various texts. This is a major disappointment, but never mind. The reason to purchase this book is the art. The text is explanatory enough to teach the reader about Richter's career and work, and serves its purpose well enough.

It is not clear whether the reader unfamiliar with Richter's work, or who has not seen it in person, can enjoy this book on its own merit, but for the reader even slightly aware or curious of Richter's career, this is a welcome volume for the library.

I am mad about Gerhard Richter. Especially when it comes to his masked and stripped oil paintings. Therefore it makes sense that I would have to acquire this little book full of detail panels of Richter's painting. That's it. That's why you would buy this thing. It's straightforward and there's really no other use for it once you are done staring. It gets filed under "reference" in my library. When someone wants to see what it is about this German painter that get me so juiced, and we don't want to run out to the Saint Louis Art Museum and I don't have Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation lying around (or even if I do) then I let them flip through this little art book.

it is so sensual - makes me want to lick the pages. i sit with my daughter (21 months old) and we both just sink into it. life is beautiful. and sad.

I'm a huge fan of Richter's work, but do we really need a large collection of under worked sketches for his abstract paintings?

This is a beautifully constructed book. Heavy cream paper and page after page of drawings and sketches. If you're into this artist I think it's a must for your book collection. It really illuminates his thought and working process, especially for his abstract work. I highly recommend it!

Me ha cautivado inmensamente, nunca habia tenido la oportunidad de ver los bocetos e intenciones primeras de Richter y esta es una muy buena selección de trabajos de mano. El dibujo, la plástica como protagonista, la composición , la maestria, el esmero y el buen trabajo. Definitivamente hay que tener este libro, la edición es muy buena y las imágenes son generosas en número, en calidad y en tamaño.