Contemporary Painting Thread

[Sergei Fedorov]

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 to a middle class family in Germany. During the early sixties Richter met and began to work with artists such as Sigmar Polke, Konrad Fischer-Lueg and Georg Baselitz. Their work, and Richter's in particular, began to have an impact in Germany, and eventually international art circles. Richter's beliefs are credited with refreshing art and rejuvenating painting as a medium during a period when many artists chose performance and ready-made media.

The 2001 Retrospective at MOMA displayed how diverse Richter's paintings are. His early work is of blurred figurative paintings, both with and without colour followed by seductive abstract paintings, with a colour palette that is either brilliant or subdued. His surprisingly diverse range of work has received prolonged discussion from critics, especially due to Richter's disregard for "traditional" stylistic progression and his use of photographs.

Richter is basically, the great grandfather to a lot of current contemporary painting practices. He is a giant art market monster that most painters must suffer through comparisons to (expecially if you use photography in your work) or with.

[Sergei Fedorov]

more:

[Sergei Fedorov]

Paintings of his wife and daughter:

[Sergei Fedorov]

Gerhard Richter's 15-painting cycle on the Baader-Meinhof Gang is quite simply one of the most important works of art of the second half of the 20th century. Serious, look it up on the interweb.

Now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the collection of black and white oil paintings drew from ubiquitous photographs of the Baader-Meinhof (German urban terrorists who died in prision in mass suicide/murder) era. Angering the German public when it first appeared in the late 1980s, it has become recognized as Richter's masterwork. If you are in NYC go check it out, it is up at MOMA once a year (just ask'em if it is up).

These paintings are sick, and here are some (about half):

[Sergei Fedorov]

John Currin is a nothamerican artist best known for satirical figurative paintings which deal with provocative sexual and social themes in a technically skillful manner. He also love huge tits.

His work is some bizarre, pop, clasical, sexual, delicate,...

...and Awesome.

[Sergei Fedorov]

more:

[Sergei Fedorov]

[Sergei Fedorov]

Daniel Richter (born 1962, L?tjenburg) is a German artist based in Berlin and Hamburg. He is of no relation to Gerhard Richter, and is an old punk rocker/ post punker who paints with colours out of a nuclear explosions. He paintings are awesome and in interview's he is a total prick.

[Sergei Fedorov]

some more:

[Sergei Fedorov]