Comments on: Still Life: the art of Gerhard Richter

By: Rik

Rik — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:16:27 +0000

Back in the early days of the blog I did a few posts about art and artist that I thought were, basically, taking the piss, but after a while I got tired of my own complaining and gave up. I realised the best response I could offer these charlatans and no-marks was to simply ignore them, even when the temptation to vent spleen proved to be nigh-on irresistible. The occasional barbed aside does slip through, but I’d rather spend my time praising the work that I find inspirational.

By: JR

JR — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:31:10 +0000

If I had the time I wouldn’t mind writing a blog dedicated to passionless, indifferently produced art. A jaded activity, for sure, but probably a satisfying one, too. One shooting-ducks-in-a-barrel approach would be to identify the individuals graduating from the top 10 or so allegedly elite art schools and track what they produce. Most of them are going to play it safe to ensure an income stream and/or make art that references and only makes sense to other artists. (I used to subscribe to Frieze and Artforum in the ’90s when I was trying my hand with painting, and I gradually grew more and more depressed with what the ‘art world’ was producing. What is the opposite of inspirational? ‘Cos that’s what those magazines were. But they were oh so pleased with themselves. Haven’t touched one since 1999.)

By: rikrawling

rikrawling — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:44:29 +0000

Richter’s work I came to late, probably long after everyone else, but that’s how I prefer it. I got to take the work on its own terms, and it was only in researching the man did I come to understand the extent of his body of work and how highly he’s regarded by the high art mob. As I said in my posting, I think he’s one of the few artist who you can tell would still be producing work even if they were a postman or a janitor. It’s just something they have to do, whereas many currently employed in the arts are quite clearly only in it for the money and the crap glamour of media attention. Richter’s work is what you’d like to hope future generations would use as a gauge of our times and recognise that, despite all the evidence to the contrary in the mass media, we were still evolving. I’d like to get one decent book on his work, but there are too many to choose from and they’re all prohibitively expensive. Taschen should stop peddling the same old irrelevancies to us and offer a Richter book for £5, but unfortunately he’ll probably have to die first before he’s given that kind of treatment.

By: JR

JR — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:07:55 +0000

There’s an awful lot o’ pop culture out there, as we’ve both noted, but it’s getting a little bit odd just how much my bucket o’ pop culture spills into yours and vice versa. Richter is one of my half dozen or so favorite painters, and possibly my favorite from the past 40 years or so. (Polke is another, who you also mention.) Even made a point to go see his retrospective at the NYC MoMA in spring of ‘02. (A trip I’ll always remember b/c we were advised to buy bottled or mineral water everywhere b/c the water supply was still questionable from 9/11.) My personal fave painting is ‘Betty’, of his daughter. (I have a ‘daddy’s girl’ daughter, so I’m a sucker for such things.) Anyway, no point to this note other than to confirm that we both have remarkable taste in art : ) And thanks as always for providing my brain something good to chew on just about every day.