Gerhard Richter is widely seen as one of the most important painters at work in the world today. Born in Dresden, Germany, in 1932, he left for the West in 1961, settling in Dusseldorf, where he held his first exhibition in 1963. He has exhibited internationally for the last five decades, including retrospectives in New York, Paris and Dusseldorf. He lives and works in Cologne. As the artist draws near to his eightieth birthday in 2012, Tate Modern in collaboration with the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, is staging a major retrospective exhibition. While many previous books have focused on one aspect of Richter's work, this stunningly illustrated survey encompasses his entire oeuvre, including photo-paintings, abstracts, land and seascapes, portraits, glass and mirror works, drawings and photographs. Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, has conducted a new interview with Richter, covering his life and achievements. An array of international critics and curators each examine a specific period of the artist's career, bringing fresh perspectives to bear and placing individual works in the context of world events. With extensive comparative works, studio photographs, a chronology and a selective bibliography, this monumental book is a fitting tribute to one of the world's greatest living artists.

Nicholas Serota is Director of Tate and the editor of Cy Twombly and Donald Judd Mark Godfrey is a Curator at Tate Modern and editor of Francis AlA s: A Story of Deception Contributors: Achim Borchardt-Hume is chief curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Dorothee Brill is a curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Rachel Haidu is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester; Christine Mehring is Associate Professor of the Art History at University of Chicago; Camille Morineau is a curator at the Centre Pompidou, Paris