Gerhard Richter- Tate Modern

I will first talk about the last room in this exhibition. The cage room  which I managed to see on two separate occasions, due to being able to access it without a ticket. The first time was with a fellow fine art student and friend from a different college in London. I mention this as it was a beneficial experience for the both of us. And it made me realise how valuable discussions about artwork can be. My friend announced fairly quickly that he wasn't that keen on the work, I being interested to know why,  tried to get him to tell me his reasons why and thus a conversation started. It then turned to me to say why I liked the work. We discussed the scale of the work, the texture/layering of the paint, we looked closely at small details, and stepped back to look at it as a whole. We looked at all the paintings together in the room and gradually we both found things we could like. Afterwards my friend said that our discussion had opened his 'painting eye'. I found it quite hard to talk about the reasons why I liked it. So the experience was quite challenging for me, as it forced me to explain and articulate my ideas surrounding the work.

'Cage Grid' Painting.

Curation Analysis
Overall I wasn't really keen on the curation. In my eyes a good exhibition is one in which you 'fall in love with the Artist'. And since I already liked Richter's style I expected to be blown away, thus was the hype of the exhibition, I did however come away feeling almost disappointed.
I felt that some of the groupings in the rooms didn't work well for me. There were lots of twos or more series of paintings grouped which worked well, abstracts, but then sometimes amongst series of abstracts grouped together they'd be a piece that to me didn't quite fit. They'd be some of his typical colourful squeegee abstracts alongside a more figurative painting of flowers or something. He seemed maybe to be making a contrast, between abstract and figurative however I felt that it upset my appreciation for each painting in the room. Because I felt I was thinking too much about the groupings and not bout the paintings individually.
I was also I little confused about the overall curation structure, it seems to be some rooms were paintings from the same period of time, from the same project/title/series, painting style. So to me the exhibition felt a bit of a jumble.

'18th October 1977'

The rooms I did like, were room 4- 'grey paintings and colour charts', room 9- '18th October 1977', a rather chilling series bringing to life the controversial lives and deaths of four German social activists turned terrorists. (http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/october-18-1977-gerhard-richter/).
Later in the exhibition in room 13 I believe is an image of 9/11. Which Richter had a bigger connection with than most as he on that very date was on a flight heading to the United States, his plane was diverted and didn't seem to have terrorists on board, but I think the painting which wasn't a typical twin towers painting, had a strong connection with the artist himself, as his story of 9/11 could've been his death. Not his near death. We all have stories of where we were when we heard. The news on the day etc. I think Richter has in his mind to remind us of terrible events or chilling events, we can maybe only speculate his reasons for this, or simply assume wishes to shock audiences with pas happenings as a way to evoke emotion alongside his work.
 and room 14 - 'cage'. I might have favoured the work in these rooms better, as for at least two of the rooms there was a running theme and style. The mostly grey painting and sculptural painting room, with a colour chart (room 4) reminded me of a book I had as a child 'Elmer' by David Mckee, a book about a patchwork elephant called Elmer, who wanted to be like all the other elephants, so rolled in blackcurrant juice, until she resembled the rest of her kind, I can't remember the whole story but she ended up being happy with the way she was, and all the other elephants painted themselves. Anyway I made a connection with the Richter room, it reminded me of something pleasant.

Not exhibited in the room in question, but an example of a similar palette.

Elmer 

An example of a Richter colour chart

As a painter Richter definitely has his own style but his style is rich with

various techniques and themes, his range of subject is not narrowed to one

Richter has a far few to choose from. He is perhaps better known for particular styles but thats not to say his other work is less good. I feel Richter has explored different methods and ways to use paint. I don't feel he does the same thing over and over. Although I didn't like the curation on my first and only visit, it did give one a overall view of the different ways he applies 'paint to canvass'.