Gerhard Richter : Overpainted Photographs - LUMA Spring 2026

📍 LUMA Foundation, Arles

▪️ iDzia Installation: the light

Photography Reinvented Through Painting

On view at the LUMA Foundation, at the Galerie Principale, from May 2026 to January 2027, Gerhard Richter’s exhibition Overpainted Photographs brings together a selection of photographs covered in paint. Through a dialogue between the image and the act of painting, the exhibition deliberately blurs the line between the photographic document and the painterly intervention.

Gerhard Richter: A Constantly Evolving Body of Work

Born in Dresden in 1932, Gerhard Richter studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown. He then continued his training at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he became a professor of painting. He developed an approach based on photographic models before expanding his practice to encompass a wide variety of abstract styles.

His work includes drawings, watercolors, and photographs covered with paint. Represented in the world’s leading museum collections, Gerhard Richter is today considered one of the most influential living artists.

Images Created at the Intersection of Two Media

Begun in the late 1980s, the Overpainted Photographs series involves applying oil paint, varnish, or lacquer to photographic prints, often drawn from his personal archives. The resulting hybrid work is neither quite a photograph nor quite a painting. As described by the contemporary art center, these works:

“crystallize questions that run through Richter’s entire practice, concerning the instability of representation, the limits of perception, and the difficulty of separating the image from belief” (LUMA Arles, 2026).

This installation thus offers visitors the opportunity to discover a unique body of work, shaped and enriched over the course of several decades.