Due to an unexpected very late night out on the town (and on my feet!) last night, I’m postponing today’s 10-mile run until tomorrow.  Instead, I’m doing what I should have been doing yesterday: hydrating, eating well, and taking care of my stiff legs.  Since you’ll have to wait just a tad bit longer to read my week 9 (of 12!) training update, let me fill you in instead on our visit to the Gerhard Richter: Panorama exhibition in Berlin.

As all of the press for the exhibition likes to point out, Gerhard Richter is perhaps one of the most famous German artists of his generation.  To celebrate his 80th birthday (Richter was born in Dresden in February 1932), the Neue Nationalgalerie put together a retrospective of his work which lets you see the progression of his art over the decades.  (For an official video about the exhibition, click here.  It’s in German, but even for non-German speakers, it offers a nice peek into the gallery that’s well worth a look.)

I was really impressed with the wide spectrum of various artistic methods, styles and subjects represented in Richter’s work.  His paintings based on photographs are realistic, but are blurred just enough to offer an altered view of reality and give you the feeling that it’s all an illusion.  One of my favorite (and one of his quite famous) series of paintings are of candles.  (Sonic Youth fans may also recognize his 1983 Kerze painting from the Daydream Nation album cover.)

Many of his pieces also work heavily with the color gray.  Far from being monotone, I was moved by the depth and emotion he could elicit from a seemingly unexciting tone.  Perhaps this is best described by Richter himself in a letter to Edy de Wilde in 1975:

When I first painted a number of canvases grey all over …, I did so because I did not know what to paint, or what there might be to paint: so wretched a start could lead to nothing meaningful. As time went on, however, I observed differences of quality among the grey surfaces – and also that these betrayed nothing of the destructive motivation that lay behind them. The pictures began to teach me. By generalizing a personal dilemma, they resolved it.

And finally, the exhibition also featured some of his more abstract work, which I am by nature typically more attracted to.  Contrasting these works to his other pieces, I really came to admire Richter’s ability as an artist to pull me in so many different directions with his work — from marveling at his photograph based paintings, to capturing my attention with colors and shapes and lines.

I found the exhibition to be extremely impressive and am sure I could return many times (maybe I will!) and always notice something new.  If you want to check it out, the Gerhard Richter: Panorama is open at the Neue Nationalgalerie (Potsdamer Straße 50) in Berlin until May 13, 2012.  As far I can tell, the online tickets are sold out, but there are plenty of tickets left to be bought at the gallery itself. (Details on prices and opening hours are at the end of this post.)

We visited on a Saturday afternoon, and were of course rewarded with long lines and crowds, so I would recommend visiting during the week, or early on the weekends.  Also, there’s another exhibition going on at the gallery at the same time, which might be worth checking out while you’re there for only 6 additional Euros: Geteilte Himmel / Divided Heaven.  We didn’t have time, but plan to return specifically to check out that exhibition too.

Have you seen exhibitions of Richter’s work, either in Berlin or elsewhere?  Do you have a favorite piece of his?

Opening hours:

Tue/Wed/Fri 10 am – 6 pm
Thu 10 am – 10 pm
Sat/Sun 11 am – 6 pm
Mon closed

Admission:

Gerhard Richter: Panorama
regular – 8 Euro
reduced – 4 Euro

House ticket including Gerhard Richter
regular – 14 Euro
reduced – 7 Euro