Gerhard Richter is now internationally recognized for his outstanding body of work. But this has only recently been the case. Indeed, Richter's approach long appeared disorient-ing, incoherent, even absurd: the artist developed an extraordinary diversity of forms,moving from "photo-realist" pictures to others that seemed to run the gamut of abstrac-tion, from concrete art to action painting. More than twenty years of hindsight were needed to grasp the dialectical movement that structures his research, determining its unprecedented attempt at an ontological exploration of painting's foundations and limits,and making it one of the most remarkable artistic experiences of the last three decades.