Color Chart No.139 1 1966

Gerhard Richter made Color Chart No. 139 with paint. Imagine Richter in his studio, maybe shuffling around, thinking about color not just as something beautiful, but as information, as data. I bet he liked the idea of making something super emotional—color—into something totally flat and ordered. It’s like he's saying, "Hey, painting can be about more than just feelings; it can be about how we organize the world." Think about the surface, smooth and kind of distant. Each color sits perfectly in its square. He’s not just making a pretty picture; he’s playing with ideas, questioning what painting can be. His whole career, he’s been in this amazing conversation with other painters, with the history of art, always pushing boundaries and making us think. Like, is this even painting? Or is it something else entirely? It’s a conversation that keeps going, and that’s what makes art so exciting.