Gerhard Richter and the exhibition trajectories since Fondation Louis Vuitton
Published on 08/24/2026 at 12:39 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael MĂŒller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Gerhard Richter has become a benchmark for how museums stage large, historically layered painting exhibitions. Institutions from Fondation Louis Vuitton to Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie have used his work to test how retrospective formats and long-term loans can frame painting after 1960.
Exhibition arcs in Paris and Berlin
The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris presented the retrospective Gerhard Richter from October 17, 2025 to March 2, 2026, bringing together around 270 works from 1962 to 2024 and emphasizing the continuity between his early figurative canvases and later abstractions. An announcement by LVMH underlined that the show aimed to offer a comprehensive view of over six decades of his practice.
Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie has in parallel structured a semi-permanent presentation around the long-term loan Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin, first opened on April 1, 2023 and described by the museum as running “until further notice”. The display centers on the Birkenau cycle and almost 90 other paintings and overpainted photographs that the Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung has placed at the Nationalgalerie.
How museums frame Richter today
In Paris, the Fondation Louis Vuitton used multiple media – oil paintings, glass and steel works, drawings, watercolors and overpainted photographs – to argue that Richter’s practice continually tests painting’s limits rather than abandoning it. The foundation positioned the exhibition as “exceptional in scale”, noting the rare loan concentration from public and private collections.
Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, operating within the Nationalgalerie network, treats the 100-work loan as a core feature of its future Museum of the 20th Century. The institution explains that these works will eventually move into a dedicated space in the new building, with the current presentation functioning as a rotating survey of Richter’s key phases.
Exhibitions and collections around Gerhard Richter
For readers following Gerhard Richter’s institutional presence, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional coverage of museum presentations, loans and retrospective formats.
The work core in museum displays
Both Paris and Berlin emphasize how Richter’s work moves between photographic sources and painterly abstraction. In Berlin, the Birkenau series anchors the presentation, reflecting his long engagement with German history and the visual limits of representing the Holocaust, while neighboring rooms show overpainted photographs and color charts.
At Fondation Louis Vuitton, the retrospective drew on loans from institutions such as Tate and MoMA alongside private lenders, highlighting major series like Abstrakte Bilder, glass constructions and large-scale squeegee paintings. The curatorial approach underscored the way Richter repeatedly revisited image types across decades rather than moving in a simple linear progression.
Where the artist stands now
Gerhard Richter’s paintings and photo-based works continue to anchor major museum narratives of postwar art, with long-term loans such as 100 Works for Berlin ensuring an ongoing institutional presence even between new retrospectives.
Key facts on Gerhard Richter
- Artist: Gerhard Richter
- Medium / Genre: Painting (abstraction and photo-based), works on paper, glass installations
- Born: 1932, Dresden, Germany
- Place(s) of practice: Studio in Cologne, Germany
- Active since: Early 1960s, with formative years in Dresden and Düsseldorf
- Key work groups: Abstrakte Bilder, Birkenau, Atlas, Farbfelder (color chart paintings)
- Current/last exhibition: Gerhard Richter, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, October 17, 2025 - March 2, 2026
- Major collections: Tate (London), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Museum Frieder Burda (Baden-Baden)
- Awards: Praemium Imperiale (painting, 1997), Wolf Prize in Arts (1994), Oskar Kokoschka Prize (1985)
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Gerhard Richter
Where have major recent Gerhard Richter exhibitions taken place?
Recent large-scale exhibitions include the retrospective Gerhard Richter at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from October 17, 2025 to March 2, 2026, and the ongoing presentation Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
What is shown in Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin?
The Neue Nationalgalerie’s long-term presentation centers on the Birkenau cycle and nearly 90 additional works, including paintings and overpainted photographs, drawn from a 100-work permanent loan from the Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung to the Nationalgalerie.
How does the Fondation Louis Vuitton retrospective position Gerhard Richter’s work?
The Paris retrospective presents around 270 works across media from 1962 to 2024, emphasizing how Richter moves between figurative and abstract painting, glass and steel sculptures, drawings and photo-based pieces, and framing him as one of the most influential postwar painters.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
