Gerhard Richter's oeuvre embraces in excess of three thousand individual works. Over a period of five decades he has created a stylistically heterogeneous, complex body of work that testifies to his status as the most important living artist of our time. This long-awaited first volume of the catalogue raisonné is being released on the occasion of the artist s eightieth birthday in February 2012. Dietmar Elger, director of the Gerhard Richter Archive at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, has spent years researching and preparing this publication. The five-volume catalogue raisonné of all of Richter s paintings and sculptures will be published over the next seven years. Aside from the richly colored illustrations, many of them full-page, it includes full technical details, information about the artist s handwritten notes, and the provenance, bibliography, and exhibitions of each individual work. This information is supplemented by commentary, quotes, and comparison images. sakriti opis