I’ve not seen a show of Richter’s work since MoMA mounted the wonderful exhibit  Gerhard Richter: 40 years of Painting back in 2002.  Then we were treated to the entire variety of his work.  If you have not followed Gerhard Richter’s long career (b. 1932) you may not be aware of his tendency to avoid being pigeon-holed by a style, subject matter, or medium.  If you only went to see his latest abstracts, then you do not know the landscapes, the seascapes, animals, architecture, the nudes, the portraits, the over-painted photographs, mirrors, and sculptures.  Richter avoids giving subject matter a value and meaning by finding no commitment to any one genre.  He pushes this further by obstructing or skewing our examination of any particular subject with paint which is blurred, scraped, layered, or smoothed to acquire a paint surface that we cannot escape.

Here then are some of Richter’s paintings of nudes whose dates range over thirty years.  These are shown in chronological order.  Roter Akt (Red Nude) was completed in 1965 and the latest nude I was able to find, Torso, is from 1997.  There is no consistency in Richter’s depicting of the nudes, not in range of palette, texture, canvas size or shape, or detail.  Maybe we can begin to guess that each work is Richter’s because of the characteristic blurring of the edges of the subjects.  But it is very difficult to be certain that the paintings are all done  by the same artist. 

The eschewing of style is rare among artists whose ambition is international acclaim.  Look at Lucio Pozzi.  (Who?, you say.  Another time, but soon.) In Richter’s case (and Pozzi’s) style intentionally gets lost through his method of working. During the course of his career Richter has collected sketches, images and photographs.  Some photos he has taken, some found, others out of books and magazines.  He has put them into a collection he calls the Atlas.  From this he takes his subject matter and lets the selection dictate the content, color, and composition of his paintings.  With this method he need not make many subjective decisions, and leaves a great deal to chance. In his way, with a lack of meaning in his subject matter and an emphasis on painting itself, Richter is continuing the Modernist mantra of painting as object, a mantra that a few decades ago seemed to be pointing to The Death of Painting, a theory that has been often written about  but never totally caught on.  By giving us our recognizable subject (but at the same time leaving it undefined and elusive) Richter returns painting to its classic traditions as well (minus the meaning).  And Richter gives no answers to anything. 

Maybe its not right then to even show some of his nudes as a group.  If we want to see the randomness that Richter prefers — the lack of cohesiveness, hierarchy, and  style — perhaps viewing his work chronologically is the only way to appreciate that.  But I have a feeling even that is over-thinking the premise.  Randomness can also include happy coincidence.  And I’ve got Half-Naked Thursday as a theme.  And, after all, Richter has his abstraction paintings exclusively in a show at present.  So I’ll get going into midtown Manhattan and give you the report.  But I promise you more of Gerhard Richter’s work, and not just the new abstractions. 

Kathleen Benton

(Click on images to enlarge, read title translations, and details.  Click again to return to page.)

All paintings by Gerhard Richter (German, b. 1932)

Roter Akt (Red Nude), 1965, Oil on canvas,60 cm X 50 cm

Ema (Akt auf einer Treppe) (Ema (Nude on a Staircase)), 1966, Oil on canvas, 200 cm X 130 cm, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Akt (Nude), 1967, Oil on canvas, 105 cm X 95 cm

Olympia, 1967, Oil on canvas, 200 cm X 130 cm, Böckmann Collection, Neues Museum, Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg, Germany

 I.G., 1993, Oil on canvas, 72 cm X 102 cm

Kl. Badende (Small Bather), 1994, Oil on canvas, 51 cm X 36 cm

 Torso, 1997,  Oil on aluminium, 55 cm X 48 cm

To see complete details of these works and more visit gerhard-richter.com

In a world where audacity and infamy are given accolades, one can hardly be surprised when mere brilliance and virtuosity garner relative obscurity.  That’s why it’s understandable if the name April Gornik doesn’t ring a bell.  Gornick is not a well-known artist.   Although she enjoys a very successful career, I don’t think Gornik has the renown she deserves for her exquisite landscape paintings.

No, I think Gornik’s obscurity has to do with the landscape as her subject matter.  A landscape doesn’t need much explanation.  We don’t need interviews with the artist in order to evaluate our response to a landscape.  We don’t need art critics to tell us what we are seeing and why the work is or isn’t an important artistic statement.   There’s no question of the artist’s intentions, no challenge to cultural taboos, no shock value, no controversy, no sex, no violence, no merde hitting the canvas.

We can simply appreciate a thoroughly traditional painting genre, handled in this case with great skill by an artist with definitely a modern sensibility.  We can  enjoy the light and drama of nature and its interpretation into paint which Gornik does so well.  For this is work about seeing  and painting, not in-your-face headline grabbing.

Moving Sky, 2005, Oil on linen, 24 x 32 inches

I suggest you seek out April Gornik’s paintings for yourself, take a friend with you, and then pass along the good news.  The  news that great painting is alive and well, relevant, and waiting to be discovered through April Gornik’s work, once we have finished reading the headlines about all the scamps.  Know that a reproduction of Gornik’s work, as with most art, is hardly a substitute for the viewing real thing (Light Before Heat is 11 feet long!).  While a great deal of contemporary art can be read about and then argued about as a concept, this work needs to be experienced.

Perhaps April Gornik doesn’t want or need to make noise or headlines to feel successful.  She may be proud of the fact that her work stands on its own without being confrontational and controversial.  It may be enough for her to be masterful and elegant.

Kathleen Benton

Lightning and Water, 1981, Oil on canvas, 50 x 102 inches

Light Before Heat, 1983, Oil on canvas, 66 x 132 inches

Light and Trees, 1996, Oil on linen, 82 x 55 inches

Storm in the Desert, 2002, Oil on linen, 70 x 115 inches

Field and Storm, 2004, Oil on linen, 74 x 95 inches

Sun, Storm, Cloud, 2004, Oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches

Mirror Lake, China, 2004, Oil on Linen, 78 x 104 inches

Dune Sky, 2007, Oil on linen, 70 x 81 inches

Red Desert, 2008, Oil on linen, 68 x 72 inches

The Rains, 2009, Oil on linen, 76 x 79 inches

All paintings by April Gornik (American, b. 1953)

April Gornik Photograph, 2005

Photograph of April Gornik and Eric Fischl, 2008

Eric Fischl photograph of April Gornik in studio

For more information and images of April Gornick’s paintings visit her website:  April Gornik

© 2009 All rights reserved Kathleen Benton | You Can Hire an Artist

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