The German artist says the 14 paintings here are among his last. Even so, their freshness and spontaneity feels like a new beginning.
Over the past several years the prolific, celebrated German painter Gerhard Richter has twice figured prominently in art world news. In 2017, he announced that he had made his last paintings, a series of 47 abstractions. He was 85 and said he found painting tiring; forthwith, he would devote his energies to drawing.
Then last fall, it was announced that Richter had left his longtime New York representative, the Marian Goodman Gallery, where he had shown since 1983, for a younger blue-chip franchise, David Zwirner in Chelsea. These unexpected developments meet in Richter’s current show in New York: His first appearance with Zwirner presents 14 canvases from his final series, as well as three very recent series of works on paper, a total of 76 (!), all 8 by 11 inches, and one of his austere glass sculptures. Occupying four spaces on the ground floor of Zwirner’s main headquarters, this is a beautiful show. It might be summed up, with apologies to B.B. King, as the chill is gone. The latest canvases aren’t exactly on fire, but they certainly smolder. Their surfaces are unusually dense, worked over, for Richter, even passionate. Of course it’s refreshing to see them in a different space, but that doesn’t explain why it’s so thrilling to let your mind and eye absorb them.