The Museum of Modern Art trustee David Teiger, also from New York, bought his first major Richter in 2003. Teiger, who began collecting Philip Guston, de Kooning and Rothko in 1956 and who now owns two Richters, describes the German artist’s formally astute, history-laden paintings as “anarchistic and antiregime” and the artist himself as “in a constant battle with art history [in which] he doesn’t give up.”

With so many galleries, collectors and museums clamoring for Richter’s artwork, his claim that a major highlight of his career occurred during a quiet moment in his studio is perhaps surprising. It came in 2002, when Pettibon—known for his disturbing send-ups of comic book drawings and whom Richter calls “one of the artists I adore most in America”—paid a visit. The two, sitting at the cluttered dining table, collaborated on a photocollage to commemorate the one-year anniversary of 9/11. Comparing Pettibon’s art making to skateboarding or playing the guitar, Richter says, “You don’t need a studio with 60 guys polishing your sculpture. You don’t need all these guys blowing glass. My respect goes to someone like Pettibon, who can say something serious with just a pencil.

“It was one of the rare good collaborations,” he adds, laughing. Then, like a kid with a prized baseball card, he whips out a snapshot of Pettibon drawing at his kitchen table to prove it. "In The Studio with Daniel Richter" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's October 2008 Table of Contents .