gerhard richter's cologne cathedral glass

i don't remember when i first came across the work of gerhard richter. an artist whose work spans more than fifty years, during which time he has crossed through a range of means of expression ranging from blurred figurative paintings, both with and without colour followed by abstract paintings, with a colour palette that was either painfully brilliant or mournfully subdued, to his more recent work in handblown glass for the koln cathedral.

according to richter, his work "forms from structures and ideas that surround him, nothing more profound than that."

the koln cathedral project is intriguing if only because it moves away from the allegorical and sometimes unrealistic and idealized images depicted in church windows and replaces them with pure colour. here's what wired mag. had to say. richter's observation that "all we can represent is an analogy, which stands for the invisible but is not it." certainly allows for more conceptual free-reign than the usual expectation associated with religious stained glass.

here's what you see.





i think the effect in person is probably more profound than the images might suggest. the transformative nature of stained glass in sensitizing a spiritual structure is not a function of its content but of its presence and of its adjustment of light. in that sense these pieces are almost certainly successful.

to view more of richter's work, and to learn more about the artist you can visit gerhard's website.

here's a wonderful richter quote: "talk about painting: there's no point. by conveying a thing through the medium of language, you change it. you construct qualities that can be said, and you leave out the ones that can't be said but are always the most important."