23.2.91 1991

Gerhard Richter made this abstract painting sometime around February 23rd, 1991, using loose washes of color. I love the dance between the yellows and blues and how they seem to blend and bleed into each other. It’s like the paint itself is breathing, shifting, always becoming something else. I can imagine Richter in his studio, maybe in Cologne, lost in the process, responding to each mark, each layer. You can see the push and pull, the layering of colors, thin in some places and pooling in others. It's a bit like looking through water. That big yellow blob on the left, for example, looks like it was applied wet-on-wet, creating these beautiful, blurry edges. It feels intuitive, like he’s letting the paint do its thing, guiding it rather than controlling it. Richter, like other painters, is in this ongoing conversation, responding to what came before, pushing it forward. These paintings show us that art is alive, always evolving, always asking questions.