HE'S been hailed as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century - and the man himself could be coming to Southampton.

German painter Gerhard Richter broke records when one of his paintings sold for £30.4 million at auction in 2015.

Now work from his personal collection is making its way to the city for the grand opening of the John Hansard Gallery at Studio 144.

The exhibition is John Hansard's first proper show in its new home and a major solo exhibition celebrating the "huge breadth and impact" of Richter's work.

And gallery director Woodrow Kernohan says he has invited the great artist to come to Southampton to see how his work looks in the city.

As reported the south building of Above Bar's £30m arts complex will open in May.

After February's week-long "sampler programme" at the gallery's new home, the purpose-built John Hansard Gallery will be filled "floor to ceiling" with work spanning Richter's career.

Tapestries, painting, photography and prints that show his "immense ongoing influence and significance" have been loaned by the artist and from Artist Rooms - Tate's touring collection of modern and contemporary art.

A "kaleidoscopic" display of colour will fill the gallery's seven metre tall internal "prism" while a series of "alternative" portraits of gallery visitors will be made to sit alongside Richter's own.

And curators have promised a series of workshops, talks, films and tours to entice visitors in - as well as a series of responses to the work by Southampton's professional orchestra Son.

The exhibition opens with a series of works that combine the artist’s signature style with bold new aesthetic forms.

A group of four large tapestries, Abdu, Iblan, Musa, and Yusuf (all 2009), are based on Richter’s 1990 work Abstract Painting (724-4).

Woven on a loom, each tapestry multiplies the forms and colours of the original canvas creating a stunning new visual effect.

Abstract Painting No. 439 (1978) is presented together with its original sketch, Oil Sketch no.432/11 (1977), that Richter photographed, projected and reproduced as an exact copy, four times the size.

With Abstract Painting (809-3) (1994), Richter has pressed, squeezed and scraped paint across the surfaces to form horizontal and vertical lines that are reminiscent of photographic motion blur.

In Self-Portrait, Three Times, 24.1.90 (1990) and Self Portrait Standing, Three Times, 17.3.1991 (1991) Richter has used six identical prints of a photograph that consists of a triple exposure of the artist standing in his studio.

On each successive print, he applied more and more paint using a squeegee and a brush, so that the final work disappears completely, as does his studio.

Forty Eight Portraits (1971–91) is a series of photographic reproductions of black and white paintings of famous white men from the 19th and 20th centuries who were prominent in the fields of literature, science, philosophy and music that Richter created for the German Pavilion in the 1972 Venice Biennale.

The subjects of the portraits include, amongst others Albert Einstein, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka.

There will also be a series of talks by 12 "leading" female academics who will talk about the portraits "missing" from the project.

Mr Kernohan said: "I have invited him to come but I don't know if he can because he's quite senior."

Curated by Mr Kernohan and head of programmes Ros Carter with Nadia Thondrayen the show will open on May 12.