Gerhard Richter Hidden Gems. Works From Rhenish Private Collections 5 September 24 – 2 FEBRUARY 2025

Düsseldorf Kunstpalast major autumn exhibition brings together more than 120 artworks from all of Gerhard Richter’s creative periods and groups of work.

Many of the selected exhibits are hidden treasures: pieces from private collections that have rarely – if ever – been shown in public before. As part of the most comprehensive Gerhard Richter exhibition in Germany for over ten years, these works provide an insight into the entire spectrum of his art – from his beginnings in the early 1960s to more recent times.

The exhibition focuses on the Rhineland as the perfect setting for the evolution of Gerhard Richter’s oeuvre following his move from Dresden in 1961. It was here that he met other like-minded artists such as Sigmar Polke and Günther Uecker, role models and provocative figures like Joseph Beuys, and eventually the curious and enterprising community of collectors that had formed around the emerging galleries in Düsseldorf and Cologne.

The exhibits on display were acquired by enthusiastic collectors, as well as by major businesses from the 1980s onwards, and were also sometimes exchanged with fellow artists. Over time, many of the works have been passed down to the younger generation, who are actively keeping the tradition of collecting alive in the Rhineland today.

With around 120 works, the exhibition provides an overview of Richter’s entire oeuvre from the early 1960s to the present day. The emphasis is on painting: more than 80 works lead visitors on a journey from Richter’s first black and white photo paintings, austere colour charts and grey pictures to monumental landscapes and soft, free abstractions, culminating in his final non-representational images from 2017. Drawings, watercolours, photographs, sculptures and the only artist film made by Richter himself all attest to the great richness of the collections here in the Rhineland and lend the exhibition a retrospective dimension.

The exhibition is curated by Gerhard Richter expert Markus Heinzelmann, Professor of Museum Practice at Ruhr University Bochum.
The show is supported by the Gerhard Richter Archive.