The question for the most important contemporary artists is often answered with just one name: Gerhard Richter.
The extremely versatile work of Gerhard Richter, who had fled the GDR in 1961 and completed his art studies with Karl Otto Götz in Düsseldorf, is proof of an innovative painter and graphic artist, who does not cease to ever and ever again reinvent his highly aesthetic art. His works after photographic models, kept in an earthen palette, made for a great part of his fame. These works subtly questioned the concept of reality with their alienated blurred effects. At the same time he made a lot of surprisingly different works, such as the strongly colored abstractions or the geometric "Farbtafeln" [Color Plates]. Every singly complex of works by Gerhard Richter counts as a highlight in his ever changing style.
Countless honors and awards - for instance the great exhibitions in Vienna, London and Munich in 2009 - honor Gerhard Richter as one of the most influential artists of the last decades.