Gerhard Richter: Lines Which Do Not Exist (Drawing Papers)

For Gerhard Richter (born 1932), the category of drawing covers a multitude of techniques, including graphite, ballpoint, ink, colored ink and watercolor on paper. Throughout his career, drawings have appeared in series that sometimes only consist of a few works: in the 1960s, representational and mechanical drawings from projected photographs; in the 1970s, abstract drawings; in the 1980s, drawings of people and objects; and in the 1990s, both figurative and abstract ink drawings. Nonetheless, Richter notoriously once expressed disdain for drawing's vaunted guarantee of authenticity and virtuosity--in part from his insistent and complete commitment to painting. Drawing therefore sits at a fascinating angle to his painting, and provides an arena for aspects of his thinking that rarely surface in his painting. Lines Which Do Not Exist was published for the artist's Fall 2010 exhibition at The Drawing Center in New York--his first overview in a public institution in New York since 40 Years of Painting at The Museum of Modern Art (2002). It presents more than 50 color reproductions of graphite, watercolor and ink on paper drawings made by Richter over a period of five decades, from 1966 to 2005.