Aline Guillermet uncovers Richter’s appropriation of science and technology from 1960 to the present and shows how this has shaped the artist’s well-documented engagement with the canon of Western painting.
Introduction
Art, science and technology
Photographic objectivity: from representation to visualisation
Methodological approach and challenges
Outline of chapters
1. Scientific Realism and Portraiture
Solvent transfer in the photo-paintings: Richter and Rauschenberg
Silkscreening and blurring: Richter and Warhol
The Pop portrait
Gerhard Richter’s Ema: Nude on a Staircase
2. Photography and History Painting
Painting history from photographs
The October cycle as history painting?
The photograph as "tear-image"
3. Biological Chance and Landscape Painting
"Painting like nature": The artistic value of biological chance
From photo-paintings of landscapes to overpainted landscapes
The politics of the landscape
4. Electron Microscopy and the Ornament
The Silicate paintings
The politics and aesthetics of the ornament
The digital ornament
Coda: Towards Digital Painting
Bibliography
The most important painter of our times is rediscovered anew in this remarkable study: from chronophotography to electron microscopy, Guillermet reveals how Gerhard Richter’s lifelong engagement with techniques of visualisation has shaped his practice as a painter, bringing together art and science, and opening up new perspectives.