Gerhard Richter Designs Stained Glass Windows for Tholey Abbey

Gerhard Richter is creating three stained glass windows for the Benedictine Abbey of Tholey in Saarland, western Germany. This is not his first sacred commission: in 2007 he designed a window for Cologne Cathedral using 11,500 glass tiles in 72 colors. The Tholey project will be unveiled on September 4, 2019, and opened to the public in 2020. The church dates back to the 5th century and is currently under restoration. The windows cost €370,000, funded by 1,200 donors, with Richter accepting no fee. For this project, Richter is collaborating with Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who will create a new work for the monastery church. The two have worked together since 2015, most recently at The Shed in New York last June. Richter recently declined Cologne's offer to open a museum in his name, stating his works are already in major international museums. He also agreed to donate works for a dedicated room at the Nationalgalerie20, a new 20th-century art museum by Herzog & de Meuron opening in Berlin in 2020.