Gerhard Richter

Between 1968 and 1976 Richter produced a series of grey paintings. With these works he reduced painting to its barest form and apparently wanted to rid the image of any personal signature. Nonetheless they display several essential aspects of his work, including a great concern for the way in which paint is applied and a lack of any focal point.Those same characteristics can also be found in his 120-part Abstraktes Bild. Here Richter has partially scraped away the applied paint, so that the various layers of color become visible again. The consistency of this action becomes recognizable in the grid of bands of color. Ultimately, the traces of an action convey the act of painting. An imaginary dialogue between the maker and the observer of the artwork consequently arises.