Ziggy the Westie visits GOMA to see Richter’s ‘Jockel’
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Jockel (145-5) 1967 / Oil on canvas / Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
Hi there. Remember me? I’m Ziggy the Westie and I occasionally write on cool shows at QAGOMA. You might remember my past reviews of ‘California Design: 1930–1965. Living in a Modern Way‘ (2014) and how could you forget all the great dogs in ‘Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado‘ (2012).
This time I’m talking about a German painter called Gerhard Richter and his current exhibition at GOMA called ‘Gerhard Richter: The Lfe of Images‘. Although I’m from Scotland I have a bit of German name, so I thought I would check this guy out.
Know what? He’s got to be one of the best! Apart from the fact that he has painted a great portrait of a dog called Jockel (who looks just like me!) – it’s hard to tell us apart don’t you agree!
Yes, that’s me – Ziggy the Westie! / View full image
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Jockel (145-5) 1967 / Oil on canvas / Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
This artist is pretty old now – like 80 or something? Don’t know what that is in dog years but it sounds old, and this exhibition is the first time that lots of his paintings have been seen in Australia so it must be very special.
He can also paint landscapes, flowers, skulls, candles, portraits and big colourful paintings he calls ‘abstract paintings’. There is one really cool painting called Meadowland which looks soooo real I thought I could smell a rabbit in the bushes! There are other big, blurry paintings that look like the world whizzing past when I run really fast. There is also a black and white painting of one of those very noisy jets called Phantom Interceptors that fly over our house sometimes!
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Meadowland (572-4) 1985 / Oil on canvas / 90.5 x 94.9cm / Collection: Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA / The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Blanchette Rockefeller, Betsy Babcock, and Mrs Elisabeth Bliss Parkinson Funds, 1985 / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Phantom Interceptors (50) 1964 / Oil on canvas / Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart, Germany / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
There is a big misty painting of the sea called Seascape – which looks like the sea where I come from, and really good pictures of some of his kids and wives and stuff. There’s another painting of a skull which is a bit spooky… (humans can be a bit weird though) – this painting also makes me hungry. There’s so much to see in this exhibition! I will have to go back again (and see if that rabbit really is there!)
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Seascape (377) 1975 / Oil on canvas / 200 x 300cm / Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart, Germany / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
Gerhard Richter, Germany b.1932 / Skull (548-1) 1983 / Oil on canvas / 55 x 50cm / Gerhard Richter Archive, Dresden, Germany. Permanent loan from a private collection / © Gerhard Richter 2017 / View full image
Subscribe to YouTube to watch behind-the-scenes video / Read more ABOUT Gerhard Richter
‘Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images‘ at GOMA from 14 October 2017 until 4 February 2018 featured over 90 works from six decades of Richter’s career. Drawn from major museum and private collections, as well as Richter’s own personal archive, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view the diverse range of his exploration of painting.
Feature image detail: Gerhard Richter’s Jockel (145-5) 1967