This exhibition offers extraordinary insight into the archive’s extensive holdings through selected artworks, exhibition models, sketches, photographs, and materials. The focus is on work that the Gerhard Richter Archive has received as gifts, such as the painting Folded sheet (70-4) and the six-part print editions Canary landscapes I and II, both of which were acquired for the archive by Museis Saxonicis Usui – Friends of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Using room models and plan sketches, the exhibition presents Richter as the curator of his own work; it is a little-known fact that, since his training at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, the painter has engaged intensively with how his art is presented. In addition, a selection of portraits by photographers including Anton Corbijn, Angelika Platen, and Alice Springs provide a window into Gerhard Richter’s personality. A special feature of the exhibition lies in the unique combination of these artistic pieces with unusual objects from the applied arts and everyday life. Through items such as the Obelisco porcelain service, the 1024 Colors carpet as well as record and book covers, the exhibition demonstrates how Gerhard Richter’s oeuvre has found its way into many people’s daily lives, often without their knowledge.

The Gerhard Richter Archive, part of the Staatliche Kunst sammlungen Dresden, was founded on February 1, 2006, on the initiative of then General Director Martin Roth. Previously, Richter had donated his large-format painting Rock (694) for a charity auction following the Elbe flood in August 2002. In 2004, an exhibition of his paintings was held at the Albertinum, supplemented by additional loans from the artist. Thus, beginning with a catastrophic flood, Dresden became the location boasting the most extensive Gerhard Richter exhibition in public collections. However, the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden were not only intended to be a place for exhibitions; with the Gerhard Richter Archive, they were also to become an important center for research and com muni cation centering on Gerhard Richter’s work.