Gerhard Richter

Curators: Dieter Schwarz, Nicholas Serota
Artist: Gerhard Richter

The Fondation Louis Vuitton presents a major retrospective of Gerhard Richter from October 17, 2025 to March 2, 2026, covering over six decades of his work from 1962 to 2024. The exhibition features 270 works including oil paintings, glass and steel sculptures, drawings, watercolours, and overpainted photographs. Presented chronologically, it traces Richter’s evolving practice from photo-based paintings and early abstract works to his signature blurred images, Abstrakte Bilder, reflective glass installations, and late abstracts. The exhibition highlights his experimental approach to painting, his reworking of traditional genres such as still life, portraiture, landscape, and history painting, and his use of intermediary media to construct autonomous images. Key periods are represented, from his 1960s photographic paintings, 1970s explorations of representation, 1980s sombre reflections, 1990s experiments with chance and abstraction, to his final works including Birkenau and last abstract canvases. Sculptures, watercolours, drawings, and overpainted photographs punctuate the narrative, revealing Richter’s ongoing engagement with perception, image-making, and the relationship between chance, structure, and materiality. The presentation emphasises both rupture and continuity, showing Richter as one of the most influential and internationally celebrated contemporary artists.