Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 on February 9. He was the first child of Horst

ゲルハルト・リヒターは1932年2月9日にドレスデンで生まれた。彼はホルスト

Richter, who worked as a teacher at the secondary school, and his wife Hildegard, a bookseller who also loved playing the piano. The young Gerhard would welcome his sister four years later into the family which was an average middle-class household. The Richter family moved in 1935 as his father accepted a teaching position at a school in Reichenau, currently known as Bogatynia, Poland. Doing so, the family was largely safe from the war to come in which Horst Richter was called up to join the army. He was eventually detained by the

リヒターは中学校の教師として働き、妻のヒルデガルトはピアノを弾くのが好きな書店員だった。幼いゲルハルトは、4年後に妹を迎え、平均的な中流家庭となった。1935年、父親がポーランドのライヒェナウ（現在のボガティニア）の学校で教職に就いたため、リヒター一家は引っ越した。そうすることで、ホルスト・リヒターが軍隊に召集された戦争から家族を守ることができた。ホルスト・リヒターは最終的に

Allied forces as a prisoner of war and was only released in 1946. The family relocated once more to Watersdorf, experiencing difficult years due to the lingering effects of the

連合軍の捕虜となり、釈放されたのは1946年のことだった。一家は再びウォータースドルフに移り住んだ。

Second World War in which his father had participated as a Nazi soldier. The war had left a deep impact on the young Gerhard, marked by economic hardship and personal loss. He lost his uncles and aunts in the war and vividly recalls his mother's screaming when they received the horrible news. Gerhard Richter reflects upon this period with a mixture of frustration and fondness. Personally, he experienced the war as a child from a safe distance, but close enough to recall the vast impact of the terrors which happened around him. Richter himself seemed to be a highly gifted child, but a notoriously bad student in school. By the age of 15, Gerhard Richter started to draw on a regular basis, creating landscapes, self-portraits, nudes and more. Genres he would continue to work with throughout his career. In 1947 in

父親がナチス兵士として参加した第二次世界大戦である。戦争は幼いゲルハルトに深い衝撃を与え、経済的苦難と個人的な喪失感をもたらした。彼は叔父や叔母を戦争で亡くし、恐ろしい知らせを受けたときの母親の叫び声を鮮明に覚えている。ゲルハルト・リヒターは、苛立ちと好意が入り混じった気持ちでこの時代を振り返っている。個人的には、彼は子供の頃、安全な距離から戦争を体験したが、自分の周囲で起こった恐怖の甚大な影響を思い出すには十分な距離だった。リヒター自身は非常に才能のある子供だったが、学校では悪名高い不良生徒だったようだ

Zittau, he would start taking his first evening classes in painting, while he was not aspiring to become a professional artist yet. From 1948 until 1951, he would study stage and billboard painting, before returning to his birth town Dresden during the summer to start his formal art studies at the Dresden Art Academy.

ツィッタウでは、まだプロの画家を目指してはいなかったが、絵画の夜間クラスを初めて受講することになる。1948年から1951年まで、舞台画や看板画を学び、夏には生まれ故郷のドレスデンに戻り、ドレスデン芸術アカデミーで正式に美術を学び始める。

Many buildings in Dresden were still in ruins due to the bombing, as they still had to walk through rubble and stones to get from one building to the next. After having lived with his aunt Gretel for a while, he moved into an apartment with some friends in the same street as the apartment of Marianna Oefinger, known as Emma, whom he married in 1957. At the academy, he was trained academically, marked by socialist realism. He joined the department for mural painting, which was a bit less strict. For his thesis, he would paint a mural for the Deutsches Hygienemuseum, which was received very well, resulting in a position in the academy's program for promising students.

ドレスデンには爆撃で廃墟と化した建物がまだ多く、建物から次の建物へ行くには、瓦礫や石の間を歩かなければならなかったからだ。叔母のグレーテルとしばらく暮らした後、1957年に結婚したマリアンナ・オフィンガー（通称エマ）のアパートと同じ通りにあるアパートに友人たちと引っ越した。アカデミーでは、社会主義リアリズムを特徴とするアカデミックな教育を受けた。彼は壁画科に入ったが、そこは少し厳しくはなかった。卒論のためにドイツ衛生博物館のために壁画を描き、これが好評を博したため、アカデミーの有望な学生のためのプログラム

Things seemed to be smooth sailing. He had a studio from the academy, a steady income for three years, and was able to do a number of commissioned murals. However, he felt increasingly uncomfortable within the restrictions of the academy. He did not want to commit fully to socialist realism, but was also critical towards the underground art scene and capitalism.

物事は順風満帆に見えた。アカデミーからアトリエを与えられ、3年間は安定した収入があり、依頼された壁画も数多く描けた。しかし、彼はアカデミーの制約の中で次第に居心地の悪さを感じていった。社会主義リアリズムに全面的にコミットしたくはなかったが、アンダーグラウンドのアートシーンや資本主義に対しても批判的だった。

He was in search for a so-called third way, including the best of both spheres, between the East and the West. A crucial event for the development of Gerhard

彼は、東洋と西洋の間の、両方の長所を含む、いわゆる第三の道を模索していた。ゲルハルトの発展にとって重要な出来事

Richter was visiting documenta zwei in Kassel in 1959. He was strongly impressed by the works of Jackson Pollock or Lucio Fontana. As if an epiphany, Richter realized the creative prohibitions towards abstraction were wrong, as was his very own way of thinking up to that point. Due to the political situation of the Cold War and Richter's realization, the West offers more when it comes to his artistic endeavors. Gerhard and Ema left the

リヒターは1959年、カッセルのドクメンタ・ツヴァイを訪れていた。彼はジャクソン・ポロックやルチオ・フォンタナの作品に強い感銘を受けた。まるで啓示を受けたかのように、リヒターは抽象画に対する創作上の禁止事項が間違っていることに気づいた。冷戦の政治的状況とリヒターの気づきにより、彼の芸術活動に関しては、西側からのオファーが多くなった。ゲルハルトとエマは

GDR for West Germany.

GDRは西ドイツのこと。

Doing so, Gerhard and Ema arrived in Dusseldorf, where Richter started to study at the Dusseldorf Academy.

そうしてゲルハルトとエマはデュッセルドルフに到着し、リヒターはデュッセルドルフ・アカデミーで学び始めた。

He started out swain, testing everything he could, resulting in a very productive period.

彼はスウェインからスタートし、できる限りのことを試した結果、非常に生産的な時期を過ごした。

However, afterwards he was unhappy with these works and destroyed many of these paintings, with his true elaborate only starting in 1962. Richter arrived in a vibrant art scene and quickly became friends with, among others, Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo and Konrad Fischer, formerly known as Konrad Lübeck. Due to the presence of Josef Beuys as a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy, Richter was also very impressed by Fluxus. They discovered and engaged with American pop art since 1962. During one of their earliest shows, the group of friends, seen as the German pop artists, presented their own movement, titled Capitalist

しかし、その後、彼はこれらの作品に不満を抱き、これらの絵画の多くを破棄し、彼の真の精巧さは1962年に始まったばかりである。リヒターは活気に満ちたアートシーンに到着し、すぐに、とりわけジグマール・ポルケ、ブリンキー・パレルモ、コンラート・フィッシャー（旧名コンラート・リューベック）と親しくなった。デュッセルドルフ・アカデミーの教授にヨーゼフ・ボイスがいたこともあり、リヒターはフルクサスにも強い感銘を受けた。彼らは1962年以来、アメリカのポップ・アートを発見し、それに取り組んできた。初期の展覧会では、ドイ

Realism, and with reference to Socialist Realism, but also a label Richter wasn't too satisfied about. Richter was interested in current affairs, consumer society, new media and popular culture. He incorporated these elements into his painterly practice, depicting for instance televisions, design magazines, advertisements or political figures and events. This was the genesis of Richter's professional oeuvre, and photography was the starting point, something which used to be impossible with his academic background. He combined photography with his characteristic blurred effect, and immediately started to examine the relationship between both media, photography and painting, a true pillar within his artistic practice. The German artist was interested and fascinated by the dialectic relation between the objectivity and the subjectivity when painting photographs. For Richter, the photograph was the most perfect picture. He could eliminate conscious thinking, as the picture does not change, it is absolute, autonomous, unconditional and not linked to any style. With his blurred effect, he made everything equal, equally important and simultaneously equally unimportant. He was strongly drawn to depicting certain subjects from found photographic material. Think of military subjects, family portraits, images from newspapers or magazines. These selected images all have their very own narrative and motive to be painted, most often combining death or suffering, and its exploitation of death and suffering in media. From 1963 until 1964, Richter had his first exhibitions and commercial successes, collaborating with several galleries, and also collectors were starting to get really interested in his work and career. A landmark year for Gerhard Richter was 1966, for many reasons. The first, the birth of his daughter, Betty, whom he iconically painted in 1988. He also painted his wife

リアリズム、そして社会主義リアリズムを参照しながらも、リヒターはこのレッテルにあまり満足していなかった。リヒターは、時事問題、消費社会、ニューメディア、大衆文化に関心を持っていた。リヒターは、テレビ、デザイン雑誌、広告、政治的な人物や出来事などを描き、これらの要素を絵画制作に取り入れた。これがリヒターのプロフェッショナルな作品の起源であり、彼の学歴では不可能であった写真が出発点となった。リヒターは写真と彼の特徴であるぼかし効果を組み合わせ、すぐに写真と絵画という2つのメディアの関係を検証し始めた。このドイ

Emma, nude on a staircase, one of his most famous works he ever painted, and he took on geometric abstraction with his colour chart, influenced by his friend Blinky Palermo, but also influenced by pop art and minimal art. Richter had already been experimenting with abstraction and minimal painting, think of the abstracted blur or washed out zones of oil paint, but also depicting very minimal elements, such as curtains, tubes, turning sheets or daily objects. The colour charts were copies of paint sample cards, which paved the way for Richter's future abstract paintings. After Emma, nude on a staircase, Richter would paint several erotic nudes in 1967, followed by cityscapes, aerial views, mountains, starscapes, clouds, seascapes and landscapes in 1968 and 1969. With these artworks, there is this notion of both an almost nostalgic romanticism and an ongoing exploration of abstraction. He would paint many shadow pictures, corrugated iron as a geometric abstract work, grey monochromes, colour streaks and grit, arriving at pure abstraction and questioning the limits of representation. By the end of the decade, Richter had established himself as a contemporary artist, participating in group exhibitions across the globe. In 1969, he was included in the exhibition Nine Young Artists at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, his first show at a major institution. However, Richter was still unsure about his future and in search for a specific direction, so his paints and the experiments would continue.

エマ、階段上のヌード」は、彼が描いた最も有名な作品のひとつであり、彼は友人のブリンキー・パレルモの影響を受けながら、ポップ・アートやミニマル・アートの影響も受け、カラー・チャートによる幾何学的抽象表現に挑んだ。リヒターはすでに抽象画やミニマルペインティングを試みていた。油絵具の抽象化されたぼかしや洗い流されたゾーンを思い浮かべればいい。また、カーテンやチューブ、回転するシーツや日用品など、非常にミニマルな要素も描いていた。カラーチャートは絵の具の見本カードのコピーで、リヒターの将来の抽象絵画への道を開くも

With his career on the rise, Richter was exhibiting with his good friend Conrad Fischer, who became a very progressive gallerist, showcasing the top artists of minimal art, conceptual art and formalism. Think of Karl André, Sol Lewitt, Bruce Nauman, Fred Sambach, On Kawara or Richard Long. In this context, Richter felt much more at home with painting, allowing the artist to take on painting outside of its tradition, questioning it as no other artist had done before. During the first years of this decade, Richter painted many portraits, of which a specific series of 48 portraits would be showcased at the 36th Venice Biennale in 1972, followed by participating in Documenta V in Kassel.

彼はミニマル・アート、コンセプチュアル・アート、フォーマリズムのトップ・アーティストを紹介する、非常に進歩的なギャラリストとなった。カール・アンドレ、ソル・ルウィット、ブルース・ナウマン、フレッド・サンバック、オン・カワラ、リチャード・ロングなどだ。このような状況の中で、リヒターは絵画をより身近に感じ、絵画の伝統にとらわれず、他のどのアーティストもやったことのないような絵画への疑問を抱くようになった。この10年の最初の数年間、リヒターは多くの肖像画を描き、そのうちの48点の肖像画シリーズは、1972年の第

But he would also continue to create grid paintings and especially grey monochrome paintings.

しかし、彼はグリッド・ペインティング、特にグレーのモノクローム・ペインティングも制作し続けた。

These experiments brought him to his formalum or in-paintings, in which he continued to examine the relation between representation and abstraction. What started as a representational painting was being reworked in such a manner, the imagery was entirely obliterated, using gestural brushstrokes and thick impastos. Uniquely, Richter made these gestural brushstrokes without being expressive, pulling the paint across the canvas in an emotionless manner, involving expression as an impelling force of painting. Doing so, Richter emphasised the painterly gesture, a witness of Richter's engagement towards the abstract as a counter-model of the figurative, coming to terms with the new possibilities for painting offered by abstraction and minimalism. Furthermore, from a personal perspective, the 1970s were not the happiest of years for Gerhard Richter, as his marriage with Emma was gradually coming to an end, and he lost his very dear friend Blinke Palermo unexpectedly in 1976. As a result, his grey paintings, but also his figurative works, think of his seascapes in particular, are embedded with a deep melancholy.

このような実験によって、彼はフォルマルムやイン・ペインティングにたどり着き、表象と抽象の関係を検証し続けた。最初は具象的な絵画だったものが、身振り手振りのような筆触と厚みのあるインパストを使って、イメージを完全に消し去るような方法で描き直された。ユニークなのは、リヒターがこうした身振り手振りの筆致を無表情に行い、無感情に絵具をキャンバスに引き寄せ、絵画の推進力としての表現に関与させたことだ。そうすることで、リヒターは絵画的なジェスチャーを強調し、抽象とミニマリズムによってもたらされた絵画の新たな可能性と折

In 1977, Richter took on new directions, creating two sculptural pieces using glass, something he would develop further in the future, but also introducing colourful abstract works, referred to as abstractive bild or abstract painting. A new investigation of perception, colour light, space depth and optics emerged, and as Richter formally separated from Emma in 1979, a decade which was dominated by grey ended with colour and marked a new chapter in the life and oeuvre of Gerhard Richter.

1977年、リヒターは新たな方向性を打ち出し、ガラスを使った2つの彫刻作品を制作した。この作品は、後に彼がさらに発展させることになるものだが、同時に、抽象絵画と呼ばれる色彩豊かな抽象作品も発表した。知覚、色彩、光、空間の奥行き、光学に対する新たな探求が生まれ、1979年にリヒターはエマと正式に別れ、灰色に支配された10年間は色彩で終わりを告げ、ゲルハルト・リヒターの人生と作品に新たな章が刻まれた。

The following decade, Richter's fame would rise to astronomical heights. The general interest in painting was strongly being reinvigorated, think of the arrival of New Expressionism for instance, and Richter was seen by many as the forerunner of this revival of painting.

その後の10年間で、リヒターの名声は天文学的な高さまで上昇することになる。新表現主義の到来など、絵画に対する一般的な関心は強く再活性化されており、リヒターはこの絵画復活の先駆者として多くの人に見られていた。

Gerhard Richter got together with Isa Genzken, one of the most important sculptors of the contemporary era, as they got married in 1982. They would move to a new and larger studio offered by Richter's gallerist Rudolf Swerner in Cologne. At this very moment, he was really getting into his stride with his abstract paintings. With his abstract paintings being very successful, there was somewhat a question mark next to his figurative paintings. However, at this point in time, he painted his iconic candles during the first half of the decade, but also new landscapes in a very close dialogue with his abstract works, indicating the close alignment of both spheres in Richter's oeuvre. Even more, during the second half of the 1980s,

ゲルハルト・リヒターは、現代を代表する彫刻家の一人であるイザ・ゲンツケンと1982年に結婚。二人はリヒターのギャラリスト、ルドルフ・スヴェルナーがケルンに提供した新しく広いスタジオに移る。ちょうどこの頃、リヒターは抽象絵画の制作に本格的に取り組んでいた。抽象画が大成功を収めたことで、具象画にはやや疑問符がつくようになった。しかし、この時期、リヒターは10年の前半に象徴的なキャンドルを描いているが、抽象作品と非常に密接な対話の中で新しい風景画も描いており、リヒターの作品の中で両領域が密接に連携していることを

Richter would create stunning field and meadow pieces, followed by his famous and notorious

リヒターは素晴らしい野原や草原の作品を制作し、その後、有名で悪名高い作品を発表した。

Badermannhof pictures, one of his most controversial theories, discussing a group of radicals in

バーデルマンホーフの写真は、彼の最も物議を醸した説のひとつで、次のような過激派のグループについて論じている。

Germany and terrorist attacks in the 1970s, a topic which was Richter's most provocative and politically charged body of work up to this day. His abstract works developed towards his characteristic technique using a large squeegee instead of a paintbrush, pushing the colour across the surface, creating new depths, textures and contrasts. The variety of his oeuvre could easily have been a pitfall for Richter's career, but in the end, it was his greatest strength. During the 1980s, and in particular by the end of the decade, Richter achieved true international recognition. In 1985, he received the Oskar Kokoschka Prize and had his first major retrospective, and by the turn of the decade, he was being represented by industry-leading galleries, such as Marion Goodman in New York, or Anthony Dauphine in London.

1970年代のドイツと同時多発テロは、リヒターにとって今日に至るまで最も挑発的で政治色の強い作品群であった。彼の抽象的な作品は、絵筆の代わりに大きなスキージを使い、色を表面に押し出して新たな深み、質感、コントラストを生み出すという特徴的な技法へと発展していった。彼の作品の多様性は、リヒターのキャリアの落とし穴になりやすかったが、結果的にはそれが彼の最大の長所となった。1980年代、特にこの10年の終わりには、リヒターは真の国際的評価を獲得した。1985年にはオスカー・ココシュカ賞を受賞し、初の大規模な回顧

The 1990s would be filled with one-man shows, awards and recognitions. He started the decade strongly committed to his abstract paintings, and would also continue to experiment with mirrors and glass, a result of his ongoing interest in minimal abstraction. The intersection of both was also noticeable in his abstract painterly practice, with structures and minimal abstraction, using stripes and grids as another chapter in his painterly research. With Richter, his personal life is often reflected in his work. In 1993, he painted a series of works of his wife Isa Gensgen, with her back faced to the artist, as if a certain detachment is being suggested. Shortly after, they would go their separate ways. Richter met Sabine

1990年代は、個展、受賞、表彰で埋め尽くされた。この10年間、彼は抽象絵画に強く傾倒し、ミニマル抽象への継続的な関心の結果、鏡やガラスの実験も続けることになる。また、抽象画家としての活動においても、縞模様や格子を用いた構造やミニマルな抽象表現など、両者の交差は顕著であり、彼の絵画的研究のもうひとつの章となった。リヒターの場合、私生活が作品に反映されることが多い。1993年、彼は妻イザ・ゲンスゲンの一連の作品を描いたが、彼女は画家に背を向けており、ある種の離隔が暗示されているかのようだった。その直後、ふた

Moritz, another contemporary artist, and got married shortly after his divorce. In 1995, they had a son named Moritz, followed by a series of paintings of mother and child, once again utmost personal and intimate, hence its power. The family moved to a new home in the south of Cologne, and in 1996, they would welcome their daughter, Ella Maria.

同じく現代美術家のモーリッツと離婚後すぐに結婚した。1995年、二人の間にモーリッツという名の息子が生まれ、その後、母と子を描いたシリーズが発表された。一家はケルン南部の新居に移り、1996年には娘のエラ・マリアを迎える。

The German artist would continue to produce predominantly abstract works, as it came very natural to him. He also discovered a new genre in the 1990s, which was his overpainted photographs.

このドイツ人アーティストは、彼にとってごく自然なことであったため、主に抽象的な作品を制作し続けた。1990年代には、オーバーペイントの写真という新しいジャンルも発見した。

Doing so, once more, he negotiated with languages of figuration, abstraction, and of course, the photograph.

そうすることで、彼はもう一度、具象、抽象、そしてもちろん写真の言語と交渉した。

During the 21st century, Richter would continue to gather awards, honours and retrospectives, becoming the most famous painter today, and arguably the most famous living artist today.

21世紀中、リヒターは賞や栄誉、回顧展を集め続け、今日最も有名な画家、そして間違いなく今日生きている最も有名な画家となった。

He started the new millennium with a major retrospective in 2002 at the Museum of Modern

彼は2002年に近代美術館で大規模な回顧展を開催し、新世紀をスタートさせた。

Art, MoMA, in New York. The title was Gerhard Richter, Forty Years of Painting, showcasing 190 works, which is, up to this date, his most comprehensive retrospective. He continued to focus on his abstract paintings, followed by some figurative works and experimentations with glass. In 2005, he painted September, depicting the attacks on the World Trade Center in a way only Richter could do. A small painting, but filled with power. In 2006, the artist would paint his famous Cage paintings, six monumental canvases, titled after John Cage, acquired by Tate Modern in 2008, which are currently on display up to this very day.

ニューヨーク近代美術館（MoMA）で開催された。タイトルは「Gerhard Richter, Forty Years of Painting（ゲルハルト・リヒター、絵画の40年）」で、190点の作品が展示された。リヒターはその後も抽象絵画を中心に、具象的な作品やガラスを使った実験的な作品を発表。2005年には、リヒターならではの方法で世界貿易センターへの攻撃を描いた《セプテンバー》を描いた。小さな絵だが、迫力に満ちている。2006年には、有名なケージ・ペインティングを描くことになる。ジョン・ケージにちなん

In 2007, Richter completed his commission for a new stained-glass window for the Cologne

2007年、リヒターはケルン大聖堂の新しいステンドグラスを完成させた。

Cathedral, inspired by his 1974 painting titled 4094 Colors. In the following year, the German painter started his series of colourful abstract works titled Sinbad. From 2011 and onwards,

1974年に描いた『4094色』に触発されたカテドラル。翌年、このドイツ人画家は『シンドバッド』と題した色彩豊かな抽象作品のシリーズを開始した。2011年以降

Richter would also experiment with the use of technology and digital prints. Think of his horizontal bounds of colour, titled Strips. Since 2010, one could argue, Richter reached the peak of the art world. Amazingly, the artist continues to consolidate his position, finding new directions with his practice year to year. Gerhard Richter is undoubtedly one of the most successful and most influential artists of his generation. So in the end, it was the painting who took a young boy from Dresden by the hand, to become a highly established artist travelling the world. This was the story of Gerhard Richter.

リヒターはまた、テクノロジーやデジタルプリントの使用も試みていた。彼の『Strips』と題された水平に広がる色彩の境界線を思い浮かべてほしい。2010年以降、リヒターはアート界の頂点に達したと言えるだろう。驚くべきことに、リヒターはその地位を固め続け、年々新たな方向性を見出している。ゲルハルト・リヒターは、同世代で最も成功し、最も影響力のあるアーティストの一人であることは間違いない。ドレスデン出身の少年を、世界を旅するアーティストへと成長させたのは、結局は絵画だった。これがゲルハルト・リヒターの物語である