Gerhard Richter: Panorama
6 October 2011- 8 January 2012
TATE MODERN
London
As the title of this exhibition suggests, its aim is to show the variety of Richter’s practice throughout different points in his life. It consists of 14 rooms, each dedicated to a different period of his career. It is a mixture of abstract and realistic paintings, glass and mirror installations, photographs and drawings. The pieces are laid out in chronological order.
I think the way this exhibition is laid out fairly sensible. It really does give the sense of an overview of Richter’s diverse practice. However, it may only be my personal inclination towards the abstraction; I find the mixed rooms of abstract and realistic pieces together a bit disruptive. Also, the window and mirror pieces don’t appeal to me at all as they feel irrelevant and disturb the continuity of the exhibition. Nonetheless, I appreciate the vibrancy created by the change of ambiance in every room. Especially in Room4- Grey paintings and colour charts. The position of the Grey monochrome and 4096 colours created a very nice buzzing tension.
Personally, I think the last room Cage paintings was the most exciting one. Not only because of the theme of the paintings which I can myself relate to (Richter was listening to John Cage’s music whilst working on these and although there is not a direct connection to any of Cage’s musical pieces some critics have suggested some similarities between the two artists’ approaches to the idea of instability and space). I think that the 6 huge abstract canvases, covering the walls of a white room were just overwhelming. The notion of space in Richter’s paintings positioned in a blank space of the gallery room worked really well. Also, the fact that these were placed in a separate room made them feel like a great finale of this exhibition which only added to the strength of the display.
