Editing Gerhard Richter (section)

===Early career===
In the early days of his career, he prepared a wall painting (''Communion with Picasso'', 1955) for the [[refectory]] of his Academy of Arts as part of his B.A. Another mural entitled ''Lebensfreude'' (Joy of life) followed at the [[German Hygiene Museum]] for his diploma. It was intended to produce an effect "similar to that of wallpaper or tapestry".{{sfn|Elger|2009|pp=15–18}}
[[File:Gerhard Richter by Lothar Wolleh.jpg|thumb|left|Gerhard Richter {{Circa|1970}}, photograph by [[Lothar Wolleh]]]]

From 1957 to 1961 Richter worked as a master trainee in the academy and took commissions for the then state of East Germany. During this time, he worked intensively on murals like ''{{Lang|de|Arbeiterkampf}}'' (Workers' struggle), on oil paintings (e.g. portraits of the East German actress [[Angelica Domröse]] and of Richter's first wife Ema), on various self-portraits, and on a panorama of Dresden with the neutral name ''{{Lang|de|Stadtbild}}'' (Townscape, 1956).

Together with his wife Marianne, Richter escaped from [[East Germany|East]] to [[West Germany]] two months before the building of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1961.<ref name="Gerhard Richter, Maler">{{cite book |last1=Elger |first1=Dietmar |title=Gerhard Richter, Maler |date=2018 |publisher=Dumont |location=Cologne |isbn=978-3-8321-9942-5 |edition=3rd}}</ref> Both his wall paintings in the Academy of Arts and the Hygiene Museum were then painted over for ideological reasons. Much later, after [[German reunification]], two "windows" of the wall painting ''Joy of life'' (1956) would be uncovered in the stairway of the German Hygiene Museum, but these were later covered over when it was decided to restore the Museum to its original 1930 state. A large portion of the mural was finally uncovered and restored in 2024.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hickley |first1=Catherine |title=Early Gerhard Richter mural, painted over in 1979, resurfaces in Dresden |journal=The Art Newspaper |date=23 February 2024 |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/02/23/early-gerhard-richter-mural-painted-over-in-1979-resurfaces-in-dresden |access-date=6 January 2025}}</ref>

In West Germany, Richter began to study at the [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]] under [[Karl Otto Götz]], together with [[Sigmar Polke]], Werner Hilsing, [[HA Schult]],<ref>{{cite interview| interviewer=Mario Müller-Dofel | subject = HA Schult | subject-link= HA Schult | url=http://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/private-finanzen/Euro-Interview-Exklusiv-Muellkuenstler-HA-Schult-Ich-moechte-Unsterblichkeit-Und-die-ist-nicht-kaeuflich-1853055 |title=Müllkünstler HA Schult: Ich möchte Unsterblichkeit. Und die ist nicht käuflich |language =de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717052552/http://www.finanzen.net/nachricht/private-finanzen/Euro-Interview-Exklusiv-Muellkuenstler-HA-Schult-Ich-moechte-Unsterblichkeit-Und-die-ist-nicht-kaeuflich-1853055 |archive-date=17 July 2012 |website=finanzen.net|date=13 May 2012}}</ref> [[Kuno Gonschior]], [[Franz Erhard Walther]], Konrad Lueg, and [[Gotthard Graubner]].<ref>{{cite book|author1-first=Oliver|author1-last= Kornhoff |author2-first= Barbara |author2-last=Nierhoff |trans-quote= 1959–1979 professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf. His first students are Gotthard Graubner, HA Schult, and Kuno Gonschior. Followed in 1961 by Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Franz Erhard Walther.|quote=1959–1979 Professur an der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Seine ersten Schüler sind Gotthard Graubner, H. A. Schult und Kuno Gonschior. 1961 folgen Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke und Franz Erhard Walther.|title=Karl Otto Götz: In Erwartung blitzschneller Wunder|type=exhibition catalogue| series=Arp Museum, Remagen |publisher=Kerber Christof Verlag|date= 2010|quote-page= 114|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url-status= dead|url= http://dada.compart-bremen.de/node/724 |website=compArt Database of Digital Art | publisher= University of Bremen |title=Karl Otto Götz|date= 12 May 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317231149/http://dada.compart-bremen.de/node/724 |archive-date=17 March 2012 }}</ref> With Polke and {{Interlanguage link|Konrad Fischer|de|3=Konrad Fischer (Maler)}} (pseudonym Lueg), he introduced the term ''{{Lang|de|Kapitalistischer Realismus}}'' (Capitalistic Realism)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/12/AR2010061203694.html|title=German artist Sigmar Polke, creator of 'Higher Beings Command,' dies at 69|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=13 June 2010|access-date=17 November 2014|last=Schudel|first= Matt|quote=In the 1960s, Mr. Polke was at the vanguard of a German artistic movement called capitalist realism, along with fellow painter Gerhard Richter – who later expressed reservations about his colleague's work, saying 'he refuses to accept any borders, any limits.'|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129100725/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/12/AR2010061203694.html|archive-date=29 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Arend | first=Ingo | date= 30 July 2011 | language=de | website= getidan | url= http://www.getidan.de/kolumne/rundgang/ingo_arend/28524/kapitalistischer-realismus-portrats-und-die-berghain-novelle | title= Grafik des kapitalistischen Realismus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013192221/http://www.getidan.de/kolumne/rundgang/ingo_arend/28524/kapitalistischer-realismus-portrats-und-die-berghain-novelle |archive-date=13 October 2012 | at= [[KP Brehmer]], [[Karl Horst Hödicke]], [[Sigmar Polke]], Gerhard Richter, [[Wolf Vostell]], Druckgrafik bis 1971}}</ref> as an anti-style of art, appropriating the pictorial shorthand of advertising. This title also referred to the realist style of art known as [[Socialist Realism]], then the official art doctrine of the Soviet Union, but it also commented upon the consumer-driven art doctrine of Western capitalism.

Richter taught at the [[Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg]] and the [[Nova Scotia College of Art and Design]] as a visiting professor; he returned to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1971, where he worked as a professor for over 15 years.

In 1983, Richter resettled from Düsseldorf to Cologne, where he still lives and works today.<ref>{{ cite museum | url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Gerhard%20Richter|title= Gerhard Richter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716213932/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Gerhard%20Richter |archive-date=16 July 2012 |url-status = dead | institution= Guggenheim Collection |place=New York}}</ref> In 1996, he moved into a studio designed by architect Thiess Marwede.<ref>{{cite news | first= Sebastian| last= Preuss |date=29 January 1998|url=http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/gebauter-symbolismus-oder-reine-form--gerhard-richters-wohnhaus-und-atelier-in-koeln-von-sebastian-preuss-der-maler-und-das-kreuz,10810590,9390858.html|url-status= dead|title= Gebauter Symbolismus oder reine Form? Gerhard Richters Wohnhaus und Atelier in Köln |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924082522/http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/gebauter-symbolismus-oder-reine-form--gerhard-richters-wohnhaus-und-atelier-in-koeln-von-sebastian-preuss-der-maler-und-das-kreuz,10810590,9390858.html |archive-date=24 September 2015 |newspaper=[[Berliner Zeitung]]}}</ref>