An amazing, touching interview with Gerhardt Richter whose work and quotes are found in Abstract Painting: Concepts and Techniques.
“These days, beauty is not in fashion,” says Richter, who has explored painting and its role in image culture for decades on his quest for a form of painting that corresponds to contemporary challenges. Quoting German author Thomas Mann, who predicted a change in art, Richter says: “Art will shed all of its gravity and transform into something merry and democratic.” But art has, in Richter’s view, surpassed even that. “It’s now more than merry. There has never been so much art … We don’t need it. We need entertainment. Sensations.” Beauty, however, is not lost for the artist: “Beauty is an ideal of mine as much as it ever was … But beauty is being discredited when fashion and models are called beautiful.”