The abstract paintings by Gerhard Richter (*1932 inDresden) now dominate the artist’s oeuvre, which spans a period of nearly fifty years. This audiobook features highlights from the magnificent exhibition Gerhard Richter: Abstract Paintings at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. Supplemented by extensive quotes from the artist and accompanied by musical excerpts from works by Johann Sebastian Bach and John Cage, over forty of Richter’s abstract paintings are presented from the period between 1986 and 2008. Beginning with the two most recent series Forest  (2005) and Cage (2006), their typical visual characteristics are traced back to his work of the last twenty years. In the process, no attempts are made to describe a formal development—a venture of this kind would probably be doomed to failure, since a series of logical steps would contradict Richter’s concept of abstraction, in which “randomness, coincidence, imagination, and destruction do indeed create a certain type of visual, but never a predetermined image.” Playing time: 50:05 Exhibition schedule: Haus der Kunst, Munich, February 27–May 17, 2009