SEASCAPE [SEESTÜCK], 1998

“I find the Romantic period extraordinarily interesting. My landscapes have connections with Romanticism: at times I feel a real desire for, an attraction to, this period, and some of my pictures are a homage to Caspar David Friedrich.”[1] If we place Richter’s seascapes and Friedrich’s paintings side by side, it easily meets the eye that, even when both highlight the sublimity of nature, the latter makes us realize the monumentality of his paintings by introducing human figures like the little monk, whereas the former turns us, viewers, into the point of reference for the scale of his seascapes.

[1] “Conversation with Paolo Vagheggi”, 1999, in Hans Ulrich Obrist and Dietmar Elger (ed.), Gerhard Richter - Text: Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007