gerhard richter and local inspiration

yesterday i pulled out my dusty copy of gerhard richter's atlas. atlas is a collection of richter's own sources of inspiration, with newspaper clippings, personal photographs, photos of texture/color samples- a visual diary. his repetition of images explains why we should appreciate, or at least not take for granted the things we see, no matter how minute they could seem to anyone else. it's about taking stock of the things around you. some of the elements of atlas make you use your inner child's eyes; these are utterly simple things but are completely fascinating if you let yourself disengage a bit.

a couple of favorites:

(sorry for the inferior scans, i was too uneasy about bending the book enough to get better ones)

fire, 1968

betty richter, 1978

(the back cover)

this incredible site has every page of the book: atlas

some of his paintings i adore, outside atlas:

betty, 1988

flowers, 1994

sleeper (barbara n), 1970

woman's head in profile, 1966