(b Dresden, 9 Feb 1932). German painter. He studied painting from 1951 to 1956 at the Kunstakademie in Dresden and continued living there until he moved to West Germany in 1961 to resume his studies at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf until 1963. There he was taught by the painter Karl Otto Götz (b 1914), a leading German representative of Art Informel; he was especially close to two fellow students, Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg (b . 1939), the latter of whom was to change his surname to Fischer and become an influential dealer in contemporary art. In the early 1960s Richter was exposed to both American and British Pop art, which was just becoming known in Europe, and to the Fluxus movement. In response to these trends, he and Lueg organized a Demonstration in Support of Capitalist Realism as a one-day event in a department store, Berges, in Düsseldorf on 11 October 1963, displaying furniture on pedestals as works of art and placing themselves in the room also as exhibits.

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