Fuji 3 1996

Gerhard Richter made this painting, Fuji 3, with oils, probably using a squeegee to pull the paint across the surface. It has a really interesting mix of control and chance. At the top, there's this dark green, almost like a forest canopy, that gives way to these waterfalls of color. You can almost feel Richter, you know, deciding where to apply pressure, how fast to drag the paint, letting the colors mix and blend in unpredictable ways. There are these little pops of red and yellow, like wildflowers peeking through. I wonder if he was thinking about landscapes or maybe about the way colors interact and push each other around? It kind of reminds me of some of Turner’s paintings, those swirling vortexes of light and atmosphere. Painters are always talking to each other, across time, riffing on ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what paint can do.