Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932, where he worked as a stage painter and studied at the Academy. Members of his family both collaborated with and suffered under the Nazi regime and he has maintained a positive dislike for idealism and dogma ever since. The Cage Paintings were conceived as a single coherent group, and displayed for the first time at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Their titles, Cage (1)-(6), pay homage to the American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912-92) who, in his 'Lecture on Nothing', famously declared: 'I have nothing to say and I'm saying it.' Richter is equally suspicious of ideologies. He shies away from giving psychological interpretations to his paintings, preferring viewers and critics to make up their own minds. Extensive illustration and an insightful essay by Robert Storr make this an important addition to our understanding and appreciation of a leading artist who has tirelessly pushed the conceptual and aesthetic boundaries of his practice.