February, 2005 - Nr. 2
Gerhard Richter
on Art Review’s Top 20
TWIG - German painter Gerhard Richter, whose work commands higher prizes than any other living artist in the world, has been named the 12th most influential person in the art world by the prestigious journal Art Review.
The journal called Richter "the godfather of German painting" and lauded him for now being the most generous – in addition to the most expensive – living artist. In 2004, Richter donated 41 of his works, worth an estimated $121 million, to the Dresden State Art Galleries, in the town where he grew up.
Richter was born in Dresden and began his career painting murals, one of the few art forms that allowed East Germans to abandon the rigid rules of socialist realism. But it was only on traveling to the West and seeing the work of contemporaries Jackson Pollock and Lucio Fontana that Richter grasped the vast possibilities experimentation could bring. Richter left the GDR in 1961, just before construction of the Berlin Wall began.
Richter was one of a score of major art world players who dropped in the rankings last year. Art Review had named him number five in 2003, a year for which he was also the only artist in the top 20. This year, Richter is joined by Maurizio Cattelan (4) and Jeff Koons (18).
Marian Goodman, the New York gallerist whose reputation
stems in part with her role as Richter’s primary North American dealer, was
number 15 on the list. The rest of the list includes power players in the
art world from dealers and museum directors to gallery and auction house
owners, and private collectors.
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