Fondation Louis Vuitton announces major Gerhard Richter retrospective

The Fondation Louis Vuitton is presenting a major retrospective dedicated to Gerhard Richert, one of the most influential contemporary artists, from October 17, 2025 to March 2, 2026.

Featuring 270 works stretching from 1962 to 2024, the exhibition for the first time offers a comprehensive view of over six decades of works, revealing the wealth and complexity of an artist who continually explored the realm of painting.

Gerhard Richter was among the artists featured in the opening exhibition of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, displaying works from the Foundation’s Collection. The upcoming retrospective is unprecedented in depth and scope. It retraces the evolution of an oeuvre that has always transcended genres, spanning figurative and abstract, experimentations with chance, as well as memories both personal and collective.  Defying any categorization, Richter’s work moves from portraits to landscapes, or still lifes to history painting. He systematically filters reality through an intermediary medium – a photograph, drawing or printed image – to construct a new, autonomous work.

Curated by Dieter Schwarz and Nicholas Serota, the retrospective follows a chronological order, with each section spanning a decade, revealing a vision shaped at the same time by ruptures, experiments and continuity. It includes emblematic works such as Onkel Rudi, Tante Marianne, 48 Portraits, and the October 18, 1977 series – exceptionally on loan from MoMA – as well as the recent abstractions, Birkenau.

Through paintings, sculptures, glass and steel sculptures, drawings, watercolors and overpainted photographs, the exhibition reflects a constant desire to challenge the very language of painting. 

Credits:

Gerhard Richter, Apfelbaume [Apple Trees], 1987

Gerhard Richter, Gudrun, 1987

Gerhard Richter, Lesende [Reader], 1994

Gerhard Richter, Venedig (Treppe) [Venice (Staircase)], 1985

Gerhard Richter, Carotte [Mohre], 1984

Gerhard Richter, Selbstportrait [Self-Portrait], 1996

Gerhard Richter, Kerze [Candle], 1982

Gerhard Richter, Ema (Akt auf einer Treppe) [Ema (Nude on a Staircase)], 1966

Gerhard Richter, Onkel Rudi [Uncle Rudi], 1965 (CR 85)