Question 1

True or false: Richter never uses photographs as references, preferring to paint from imagination.

Accepted Answer

False. Richter is known for his photorealistic works based on found photos and his own snapshots, blurring the line between painting and photography.

Question 2

True or false: Richter exclusively paints abstract works and has never created a figurative piece.

Accepted Answer

False. His career spans photorealistic portraits, landscapes, and still lifes—like 'Betty' and 'Woman with Umbrella'—alongside abstractions.

Question 3

True or false: Richter’s painting 'Abstraktes Bild' sold for over $46 million in 2015, a record for a living artist at the time.

Accepted Answer

True. That 1986 abstract work set a record at Sotheby’s London, making Richter one of the most expensive living artists.

Question 4

True or false: Gerhard Richter once painted a portrait of his mother using only a squeegee, no brushes.

Accepted Answer

False. Richter is famous for his squeegee technique on abstract works, but his photorealist portraits—like those of his mother—were painted with brushes.

Question 5

True or false: Richter designed the giant stained-glass window for Cologne Cathedral in 2007.

Accepted Answer

True. His 11,500-square-foot abstract window features 11,263 randomly arranged colored squares, inspired by a computer algorithm.

Question 6

True or false: Richter was a member of the East German Communist Party before defecting to West Germany.

Accepted Answer

True. He fled from East to West Germany in 1961, just months before the Berlin Wall was built, after a brief party membership.

Question 7

True or false: Richter secretly destroyed over 60 of his own paintings before they were ever exhibited.

Accepted Answer

True. In the 1960s and 1970s, Richter discarded or painted over many early works he deemed failures, a fact he later acknowledged.

Question 8

True or false: Richter’s 'Birkenau' series is based on smuggled photographs from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Accepted Answer

True. He created four abstract paintings in 2014, using blurred images taken secretly by prisoners at Birkenau, to confront historical trauma.

Gerhard Richter Trivia Questions