Townscape PL 1970

Gerhard Richter made this painting, Townscape PL, with oil paint, and you can see how he’s built up the image through layers of marks. He’s clearly thinking about how the process of artmaking, the very act of applying paint, can create something new. Looking closely, you can see how the surface has a thick, almost topographical texture. The black and white contrast creates a stark, emotional landscape, a world stripped down to its basic forms. Take a look at the center, where the paint seems to swirl, almost blurring the distinction between forms. It’s like the painting is breathing there, alive with the energy of Richter’s gesture. Richter’s work always seems to be in conversation with other artists, and you might recognize a kinship with someone like Anselm Kiefer in the way he uses materiality to evoke memory and history. What I love about painting is how it embraces ambiguity, resisting any single, fixed interpretation.