Cage Grid 2011

Here is the audio guide script: Gerhard Richter made Cage Grid with oil on canvas; it’s this cascade of yellows, greens, and whites that seem to slip and slide before your eyes. Imagine Richter in his studio, pushing the paint around, maybe using a squeegee, layering and scraping away. I bet he was thinking about how a painting can be both a window and a wall. Like, how do you create depth and flatness at the same time? There's a real tension here between control and chance, between the grid-like structure and the fluid, gestural marks. That yellow, for instance, it's not just a color, it’s a feeling, a vibration. Richter is in conversation with artists like, say, Agnes Martin or even the early modernists. It’s like he’s asking, what can painting still do? How can it still surprise us? To me, Cage Grid embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. It doesn’t offer easy answers, but invites you to get lost in the process, to find your own meaning within the grid.