Gerhard Richter: Obrist-O'Brist

Gerhard Richter and Hans Ulrich Obrist have known each other since 1985. Their collaboration began seven years later when the 24-year-old Obrist curated his first Richter exhibition. The following year he published a collection of his writings. Now Gerhard Richter has dedicated an artist's book to this long-standing relationship. The texts in the book have been created by rearranging interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist using a random generator. These are set in blocks without defined passages or paragraphs. The colour plates are made up of photographs, both portraits and mementos, of Hans Ulrich Obrist from the past 15 years and close-ups of Richter's paintings, which Richter has then painted over using brushes and scrapers. Richter has arranged the image, text and interleaf pages into a composition that gives the book a thrilling dramaturgy. Upside down pages appear time and again meaning that the book, which has two different sleeves, can be viewed from both sides. Both of the original sleeve designs, Obrist and O'Brist, are embossed, the motif standing out from the background. English text.