Gerhard Richter is now internationally recognized for his outstanding body of work. But this has only recently been the case. Indeed, Richter's approach long appeared disorient-ing, incoherent, even absurd: the artist developed an extraordinary diversity of forms,moving from "photo-realist" pictures to others that seemed to run the gamut of abstrac-tion, from concrete art to action painting. More than twenty years of hindsight were needed to grasp the dialectical movement that structures his research, determining its unprecedented attempt at an ontological exploration of painting's foundations and limits,and making it one of the most remarkable artistic experiences of the last three decades.

This book has been released on the occasion of an exhibition of Gerhard Richter"s "private paintings" at the Carre d"Art in Nimes. It was designed in close collaboration with the artist.

The book sums up paintings from an intensive period of work in 1995-1996. These pieces are being published for the first time: the new cycle S. mit Kind, numerous small-and medium-format abstract paintings, a "city picture" of Jerusalem, an Engadine landscape,a tauromachy, as well as Gerhard Richter"s first self-portrait since 1965. Earlier works from the artist"s collection will also be found here, most of which have never been pub-lished before.