Trained in the 1950s as a realistic painter, by the mid-1970s Gerhard Richter began to evolve into a more abstract artist. His large, colorful paintings from that time exposed the process of painting as much as its creative aims. Focusing solely on Richter´s abstract work, this book features 80 works on canvas that represent the full range of the artist´s experiments away from representational painting. It includes his early works, which called painting itself into question and incorporated personal documents and newspaper images. Also examined here are Richter´s series of gray paintings from the 1970s--a reaffirmation of artistic purity; his "Inpainting" series, which made the application of paint and brushstrokes themselves the subject; his color chart paintings, which both neutralize and glorify painting´s most emotionally charged element: color. Also included are his later works in which he applied paint with a brush, scraper, and palette knife. Taken as a whole, these brilliant works reveal an artist consistently in dialogue with his work, and with the overarching artistic trends of the time.