Gerhard Richter’s Last and Latest Paintings at David Zwirner

Gerhard Richter (16 March–22 April 2023) at David Zwirner's 537 West 20th Street gallery in New York is the artist's first show with the gallery since he left his longtime New York dealer Marian Goodman.

It consists of 14 oil paintings rendered in 2016 and 2017, a glass installation, and 76 recent works on paper, including his 'mood' series (2022), a suite of inkjet prints based on abstract works made by dribbling coloured ink, exhibited at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel in 2022.

Reviewing the exhibition in The New York Times, Roberta Smith said that despite Richter declaring these oil-on-canvas paintings would be his last, 'their freshness and spontaneity feels like a new beginning.'

Painted when the artist was in his mid 80s, works of such scale, freedom, and density are no mean feat.

Coinciding with the exhibition, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin will present Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin (1 April 2023–31 December 2026), an exhibition of 100 works on loan from the artist's collection.

Main image: Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting) (2016). Oil on canvas. 100 x 67 cm. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York.