Atlas

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• In 1961 Gerhard Richter began Atlas, an archive of photographs and other materials from 1945 to the present that he collected as sources for his work. It is a work in progress and contains more than 5.000 images to date. Atlas is an intimate diary as well as an archive and includes photographs of family and friends, concentration camps, pornography, cityscapes, flowers, news photographs, etc., as well as sketches and fragments of paintings. "In 1962 I found the first outlet; by painting from photos I was relieved from the obligation to choose and construct a subject."
• The images are grouped together on approximately 780 separate panels. The images closely parallel, year by year, the subjects of Richter's paintings, revealing the orderly but open-ended analysis central to his art.
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• Gerhard Richter Atlas Catalogue Raisonné no. 1-490 (1990)

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• EXHIBITION HISTORY

• 2005 Munich
  'Atlas', Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (4 June-21 August 2005). The exhibition was concipated by Gerhard Richter for K20, Düsseldorf. The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus/Kunstbau also exhibited the 'Atlas' with 733 panels.
  • [publication] Helmut Friedel (Hg.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus : München / Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König : Köln 2006).

• 2004 Warsow
  'Atlas', Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsow (September 16-November 14, 2004). Presentation of 693 panels, compiled by Gerhard Richter and Götz Adriani for the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa).

• 2003/4 London
  'Gerhard Richter : Atlas' at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (6 December 2003-14 March 2004); curated by Andrea Tarsia and Helmut Friedel. In the exhibition 691 panels were on view.
  • [publication] Iwona Blazwick and Janna Graham (eds.), Gerhard Richter - Atlas. The Reader / essays by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Jean-François Chevrier, Lynne Cooke, Helmut Friedel, Armen Zweite (The Whitechapel : London 2004).
  • [reviews] Adrian Searle for The Guardian and by Peter Campbell for the London Review of Books 26, nr. 1 (8 January 2004).

• 2002/3 Munich
  'Verweile doch ... Die Sammlung VII. Gerhard Richter, Roman Opalka, On Kawara and others', Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (November 16, 2002-February 9, 2003). Presentation of 691 panels.

• 2001 Japan
  'Gerhard Richter Atlas', Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakado (March 31-May 27, 2001), City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (June 9-July 22, 2001), Art Museum, Oita (July 28-September 24, 2001). Curated by Sumi Hayashi, Takeshi Matsuoka, Kenji Oga and Helmut Friedel. Presentation of 655 panels.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Sumi Hayashi and Shin-ichi Numabe (eds.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas / texts by helmut Friedel and Sumi Hayashi (Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art : Chiba 2001).

• 1999/2000 Prato
  'Gerhard Richter', Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato (October 9, 1999-January 31, 2000). The exhibition was curated by Bruno Corà. 641 Panels were presented.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Bruno Corà (ed.), Gerhard Richter / texts by Italo Moscati, Bruno Cora, Benjamin H. D. Buchloch and Jean Francois Chevrier (Gli Ori : Prato 1999).

• 1999 Barcelona
  'Atlas', Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (April 22-July 4, 1999). 641 Panels from the period 1962-1999.
  • [publication] Photography and painting in the work of Gerhard Richter. Four essays on Atlas. Llibres de recerca. Art 6 (Maba : Barcelona 1999).

• 1998 Munich
  'Der Atlas und seine Bilder' at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (8 April-21 June 1998). Richter's complete Atlas, 1962-1997.
  • [publication] Helmut Friedel und Ulrich Wilmes (Hg.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas der Fotos, Collagen und Skizzen, Lenbachhaus München (Oktagon : Köln 1998). Reviewed by Julia Schmidt for Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Band 62 (1999) 144-151. The catalogue was translated in English and published for Anthony d'Offay, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.

• 1997 Kassel
  'Gerhard Richter. Atlas' at the Documenta X, Kassel (June 20-September 28, 1997). The complete Atlas on view.

• 1996/7 Paris
  'Face à l'Histoire 1933-1996, L'artiste moderne devant l'événement historique', Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (December 15, 1996-April 7, 1997). 10 Panels from the series 'Baader Meinhof'.

• 1996 Munich
  The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich acquires the Atlas from the Dürckheim Collection.

• 1995/6 New York
  'Gerhard Richter. Atlas' at the Dia Center of the Arts, New York (27 April 1995-3 March 3 1996). The exhibition showed the Atlas (1964-1995) 583 panels from the Dürckheim Collection, Germany.
  • [foldout] Lynne Cooke, Gerhard Richter. Atlas. Essay to accompany the exhibition. The essay is also online available on the site of the Dia Center of the Arts.

• 1993/4 Paris
  'Gerhard Richter', exhibition at the Musée dá rt moderne de la Ville de Paris (September 23-November 21, 1993). The exhibition travelled to the Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn (December 10, 1993-February 13, 1994).
  • In the Paris exhibition 171 panels were shown. The Bonn exhibition showed an impression based on the 1989 publication. The Atlas was not shown in other exhibition venues, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Reviewed by Jill Lloyd for The Burlington Magazine 135, No. 1089 (December 1993) 842-843 and Max Kozloff for Art in America (September 1994) 98-105, 133.

• 1992 Minneapolis
  'Photography in Contemporary German Art : 1960 to the present', on view at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN (February 9-May 31, 1992). 85 Panels.

• 1989 Munich
  'Atlas', exhibition shown at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München (2 August-22 October 1989). The exhibition travelled to the Museum Ludwig, Köln (14 February-16 April 1990). 445 Panels.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Fred Jahn (Hg.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas / mit einem Text von Armin Zweite (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus : München 1989).

• 1976 Krefeld
  'Atlas der Fotos, Collagen und Skizzen', exhibition at Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld (8 February-14 March 1976). 238 Panels.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Gerhard Richter. Atlas der Fotos, Collagen und Skizzen / Text Gerhard Storck. Museum Haus Lange 1976, 1 (Museum Haus Lange : Krefeld 1976).

• 1974 Munich
  'Atlas - Entwürfe, Fotografien, Skizzen', Galerie Heiner Friedrich, München (April 4-May 1974). 228 Panels.

• 1973 Bremerhaven
  'Atlas - Fotos und Entwürfe', Kunstverein Bremerhaven (June 24-July 22, 1973). The exhibition showed ca. 150 panels.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Gerhard Richter. Atlas. Fotos und Entwürfe / Vorwort Jürgen Wesseler; Text von Helmut Heissenbüttel. Informationen 5 (Bremerhaven 1973).

• 1972 Utrecht
  'Atlas van de foto's en schetsen' was first exhibited in 1972 in Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht (December 1-30, 1972). The exhibition included 315 panels.
  • [exhibition catalogue] Wouter Kotte (red.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas van de fotos en schetsen. Hedendaagse Kunst - Utrecht, 1-30 december 1972 'Wouter Kotte (Hedendaagse Kunst : Utrecht 1972) 144 pp.

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• BIBLIOGRAPHY

• WRITINGS and INTERVIEWS
• Hans-Ulrich Obrist (Hg.)
  Gerhard Richter Text. Schriften und Interviews (Insel-Verlag : Frankfurt am Main/Leipzig 1993). Also published in English as Hans-Ulrich Obrist (ed.), The daily practice of painting. Writings and interviews 1962-1993 / translated by David Britt (Thames and Hudson/Anthony d'Offay Gallery : London 1995)
• Dietmar Elger und Hans Ulrich Obrist (Hrsg.)
  Gerhard Richter. Text 1961 bis 2007. Schriften des Gerhard-Richter-Archivs, Band 1 (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König : Köln 2007).
  • In 1993, the first edition of Gerhard Richter's writings (1962-1993) was published, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist. This new complete edition of the writings begins with Richter's farewell letter to his teacher Heinz Lomar of 1961, and is enriched by fifteen unpublished texts from 1962 to 1993. The volume thus comprises the complete texts of the past fourteen highly productive years, and closes with an interview on Richter's contribution to the Venice Biennale 2007. For this publication, Richter for the first time put his complete private archive at the editor's disposal; most of the photographic material is from this archive and has not been published before. An appendix provides ample commentary and sources as well as an index.

• ARTICLES, ESSAYS and PAPERS
• Cristina Baldacci
  'Il duplice volto dell'Atlas di Gerhard Richter', in Leitmotiv. Motivi di estetica e di filosofia delle arti No. 4 (2004).
• Benjamin H.D. Buchloh
  'Gerhard Richters Atlas. Das Archiv der Anomie', in Gerhard Richter (Bonn 1993) II. Essays = Essais. In English: 'Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas'. The Anomic Archive', in October 88 (Spring 1999) 117-145; also in Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, a.o. (eds.), Photography and painting in the work of Gerhard Richter. Four essays on Atlas. Llibres de recerca. Art, 6 (Barcelona 1999) 11-30. This essay was published in an earlier and significantly different version in the exhibition catalogue Deep Storage (Munich : German ed. 1997; English ed. 1998). Reprinted as 'Gerhard Richters Atlas. Das anomische Archiv', in Herta Wolf (Hg.), Paradigma Fotografie. Fotokritik am Ende des fotografischen Zeitalters, Band 1 (Frankfurt/Main 2002) 399-427.
  • Gerhard Richter's Atlas is one of several structurally similar yet rather different projects undertaken by a number of European artists from the early to the mid 1960s whose formal procedures of accumulating found or intentionally produced photographs in more or less regular grid formations (one could also think of the forty-year-long collection of typologies of industrial architecture by Bernhard and Hilla Becher begun in 1958, or the work of Christian Boltanski begun in the late 1960s) have remained strangely enigmatic. These projects are notable either for their astonishing homogeneity and continuity (as is the case with the work of the Bechers) or for the equally remarkeble heterogeneity and discontinuity that defines Richter's Atlas ...
• Benjamin H.D. Buchloh
  'Warburgs Vorbild? Das Ende der Collage/Fotomontage im Nachkriegseuropa', in Ingrid Schaffner, et al. (Hg.), Deep Storage. Arsenale der Erinnerung. Sammeln, Speichern, Archivieren in der Kunst (Prestel : München-New York 1997) 50-60. Also published in English as 'Warburg's Paragon? The End of Collage and Photomontage in Postwar Europe', in Ingrid Schaffer et al. (eds), Deep Storage. Collecting, Storing and Archiving in Art (Munich 1998).
• Jean-Francois Chevrier
  'Between the Fine Arts and the Media (the German example: Gerhard Richter)', in Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, ... e.a. (eds.), Photography and painting in the work of Gerhard Richter. Four essays on Atlas. Llibres de recerca. Art, 6 (Barcelona 1999) 31-60.
• Thomas Dreher
  'Atlas der Fotos, Collagen und Skizzen', in Das Kunstwerk (Dezember 1989) 105-106.
• Sabine Flach
  '"Meine Bilder sind klüger als ich ...". Der Bilderatlas als Konfiguration des Wissens in der Gegenwartskunst', in Sabine Flach, Inge Münz-Koenen, a.o. (Hg.), Der Bilderatlas im Wechsel der Künste und Medien. Trajekte (Wilhelm Fink Verlag : Paderborn 2005) 45-70.
• Helmut Friedel
  'Gerhard Richter. Atlas. Fotos, Collagen und Skizzen 1962-2006', in Helmut Friedel (Hg.), Gerhard Richter. Atlas (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus : München / Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König : Köln 2006) 5-18.
• Thomas Otto
  'Enteignet Richter? Anmerkungen zu Gerhard Richters "Atlas" und seinen Zyklus "18. Oktober 1977"', in Werner Stehr (Hrsg.), Materialien zur documenta X. Schriftenreihe des Documenta-Archivs, 6 (Kassel 1997) 97-100.
• Rainer Rochlitz
  '"Where we have got to"', in Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, ... e.a. (eds.), Photography and painting in the work of Gerhard Richter. Four essays on Atlas. Llibres de recerca. Art, 6 (Barcelona 1999) 103-124.
• Rainer Schumacher
  'Gerhard Richter - Atlas', in Flash Art (March/April 1998) 84-87.
• Dirk Schwarze
  'Ein unerschöpflicher Fundus. Gerhard Richter "Atlas", 1962-96, Fotos und Studien Umfangsangabe', in Dirk Schwarze (Hg.), Meilensteine. 50 Jahre documenta (Bostelmann & Siebenhaar : Berlin 2005) 163- 165.
• Armin Zweite
  'Gerhard Richter's "Album of Photographs, Collages, and Sketches"', in Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, ... e.a. (eds.), Photography and painting in the work of Gerhard Richter. Four essays on Atlas. Llibres de recerca. Art, 6 (Barcelona 1999) 61-102.
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