Abstraktes Foto 1989

This is 'Abstraktes Foto' by Gerhard Richter, made with paint, and photographed. Look how Richter creates this world of greys, blacks and whites. He doesn't paint a picture; he makes a painting. I can imagine him pushing the paint around, smearing it, maybe using a squeegee to drag the colors across the surface. There's a real physicality to it, a back-and-forth between control and chance. The gestures feel so intuitive, like he's wrestling with the paint, coaxing it into these unexpected forms. Look at those dark streaks slashing diagonally – they feel almost violent, disrupting the softer, more diffused areas. It's like Richter is asking, what can paint do? How can it create a sense of depth, texture, and movement, without representing anything specific? Richter’s a legend. He takes the history of painting, chews it up, and spits it out in a way that’s totally his own. It’s a reminder that painting isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions we ask.