Gerhard Richter -it's all in the detail

Last Night was late night opening at Tate Modern and I took the opportunity (along with half of London!) to catch the last few days of major retrospective of the work of Gerhard Richter. This included the 'Cage' paintings that so entranced me  but there was so much more! I  was very late to bed once I'd discovered his website (from which these images  from the exhibition come)

There were many pieces, such as the one above which were very large scale paintings of photos of tiny details  of textured paint. Seeing some of his resource material  and how he uses it as art in itself was fascinating (have a look at the 'atlas' section of the website) In 'Halifax 1978' (below) he photographed an abstract painting 128 times at different angles and distances resulting in a black and white work reminiscent of landscape

 Seascape (Sea-Sea), was based on a collage of two photographs of waves, one inverted over the other to suggest clouds. There were also several 'cloud' paintings in which again small swirls of paint were photographed and then painted at inflated sizes so they appeared like landscapes.

I liked  'Elbe' -  a series of monotypes where Richter was experimenting with the effects of a roller , juxtaposing accidental and intentional marks

 But most of all I loved  the deeply layered abstracts with paint applied then moved around with the squeegee. I could have gazed at them for  hours if not for the press of crowds behind me.