To say that an international artist can be hugely influential in Australia, where their work has rarely been seen​, is to pay testament not just to the aesthetic qualities of their work but also to the appeal of the ideas behind it. 

German-born Gerhard Richter is one such artist. Since the early 1960s he has explored a number of related themes and ideas, producing paintings and photographs that question the nature of the images that can be produced by both mediums. Through magazines and books, and later the web, Richter’s work has been the subject of intense interest by many Australian artists – even when access to it meant trips to galleries in Europe or the US.