Gerhard Richter discusses his 50-year career in an uncommonly candid 2017 interview

The Foundation Louis Vuitton pour la creation in Paris has acquired numerous pieces by Gerhard Richter (born 1932) in recent years, becoming one of the most important publicly accessible collections of the artist’s work. This discussion between Richter and the former director of Kunstmuseum Winterthur Dieter Schwarz took place in 2017 for the foundation’s series of publications. The conversation between Richter and Schwarz follows the chronology of the works in the collection.

The interview is characterized by Richter’s exceptional openness and the longstanding familiarity between the conversational partners. It was important for the artist, who always chooses his words very precisely, that his statements would be presented verbatim and in the original language used in the interview–thus the bilingual volume presents both German original and English translation, along with reproductions of pieces from the collection.