Gerard Richter. Panorama.

I had an inkling as to the assortment of Richter’s ‘looks’ but a stroll through the overridingly chronological path of the rooms of the Tate Modern’s exhibition Gerard Richter. Panorama revealed just how various an artist he is. One can be forgiven for falling short of reading up on the media, themes, theories and history explored and expounded by the 80-something year old German. It is, after all, quite something: stainless steel and annotated photographs through to oil on canvas; figural and abstract works; nods, deferent and not so deferent, to the art and theory of old and modern Masters; familial, experiential and world wide history. Quite a list. Richter’s intellectual investment is clear and whether you fancy yourself as an art critic, art historian or, perhaps preferably, neither, there is a wealth of material to get excited about.

It is surprising then that one does not feel completely saturated, nor indeed confused, as you wind up the ‘Cage’ rooms. Perhaps this is because an incredible display of technical virtuosity lends coherency to Richter’s oeuvre; it abounds and captivates right through to the end. Added to this is the fact that, just when you start to think you have seen too many photo – realist paintings or abstract works, the curators make timely breaks from the homogeneity of these beautifully measured paintings and present you with a stack of mirrors, or another of Richter's 'sculptural' pieces.

The plentiful abstract paintings are symptomatic of Richter’s signature use of the squeegee and his erasure technique but – and quite possibly I missed a trick here - I came away feeling that the exhibition script flaunts these specialised, individual terms without explanation. Another puzzling thing was how Richter painted his mesmerising ‘Seascape’ and his eminently effective birds-eye cityscapes, but perhaps that is not one which can be answered. I decided he must have to run forwards and backwards rather a lot but that sounds a bit Charles Cecil-esque. So, lots of reading up after....It’s only on until Sunday 8^th Jan (there are late night openings on Friday and Saturday) but see it if you can, ‘tis a GREAT show.