Gerhard Richter quote on abstract pictures

Gerhard Richter’s writing on abstraction circulated again on social media on May 19 and May 20, with X users reposting a line that contrasts his abstract paintings with his landscapes and still lifes. The posts paired the quote with gallery images and personal commentary about painting, contemporary abstraction and studio practice, according to the social briefing and public X activity cited there. (libquotes.com) The line being shared is not a new statement. Quote archives and secondary art writing attribute to Richter the sentence, “If the abstract paintings show my reality, then the landscapes and still-lifes show my yearning.” (libquotes.com) ### Which Gerhard Richter quote was being reposted? The wording that appeared in recent posts is the one that sets “reality” against “yearning.” LibQuotes attributes that sentence to Richter and presents it as a sourced quotation, while AND Journal cites the same line in an essay on Richter’s landscapes. (libquotes.com) The phrasing matters because it links two parts of Richter’s practice that are often discussed separately: his abstract paintings and his landscapes. In the reposted sentence, abstraction is tied to “my reality,” while landscapes and still lifes are tied to “my yearning.” (libquotes.com) ### Did Richter say similar things elsewhere about abstraction and reality? Richter’s published writings include a closely related statement about abstraction. In material cited by Wikiquote from Richter’s text for the catalogue of Documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982, he said: “Abstract pictures are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can postulate.” (libquotes.com) That formulation has also been preserved in later quote collections and book listings tied to *Gerhard Richter: Text: Writings, Interviews and Letters, 1961-2007*, edited by Dietmar Elger and Hans Ulrich Obrist and published by Thames & Hudson in 2009, with a U.S. edition listed by D.A.P. (libquotes.com) ### Why do people connect that line to Richter’s landscapes? AND Journal’s essay on Richter’s landscapes says the artist’s statement about abstract paintings showing “reality” and landscapes showing “yearning” is central to reading that body of work. The essay links Richter’s landscapes to German Romantic painting and notes his long-running concern with landscape across his career. (en.wikiquote.org) Richter himself has made similar connections in other published remarks. Quote compilations drawing from his writings also preserve his statement that he felt “a real desire for” the Romantic period and that some of his landscapes are “a homage to Caspar David Friedrich.” (books.google.com) ### What was happening online this week? Social posts on May 19 and May 20 recirculated the quote in a looser, image-driven format rather than as part of a museum release or new interview, according to the supplied social briefing. The posts were described as coming from art accounts and VTuber creators, and they linked Richter’s remarks to current painting projects and broader discussion of abstraction. (and.org.uk) The online reaction did not center on a new Richter exhibition or statement that surfaced this week. The available evidence points instead to an older line from Richter’s published and archived remarks being reused in contemporary social-media conversation. (quotlr.com) ### Where can readers look next for the wording behind the posts? Richter’s 2009 collection *Text: Writings, Interviews and Letters, 1961-2007* remains the clearest published source trail for his statements on abstraction, according to library and publisher listings. AND Journal’s essay on his landscapes and the archived quote databases provide the wording that has been circulating in the latest posts. (searchworks.stanford.edu) (libquotes.com)