Gerhard Richter
Modern
Modern

Gerhard Richter

Born 1932

The Early Life of Gerhard Richter Dresden, Germany, 1932. The setting is the Hospital Dresden-Neustadt. Gerhard Richter enters a world defined by the tightening grip of National Socialism. His father, Horst Richter, navigates the academic rigor of the Technische Hochschule in Dresden as a student of mathematics and physics. His mother, Hildegard Schönfelder, works as a bookseller. The household is shaped by these disparate intellectual and commercial pursuits. In 1936, the family expands with the birth of his sister, Gisela. War and political upheaval fracture the family's stability. The sh…

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works mapped
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subjects
An Interactive Constellation

The Subject Atlas

A chart of Gerhard Richter's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.

Focus a Subject
Trace a Context

Spokes — Subject

Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.

Rings — Career Period

Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.

Threads — Shared Context

Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.