Throughout his career, Gerhard Richter has navigated between realism and abstraction, exploring the material implications of various mediums without restraint. The artist has said of his practice: “I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant.” Richter actively distorts his artworks by dragging paint across the surface, obscuring the marks he made previously.
Throughout his career, Gerhard Richter has navigated between realism and abstraction, exploring the material implications of various mediums without restraint. The artist has said of his practice: “I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant.” Richter actively distorts his artworks by dragging paint across the surface, obscuring the marks he made previously.
This multi-step process of creating an artwork and then immediately covering it with more layers is the perfect example of painterly distortion. We love this focus on the process of creation and how Richter uses distortion to add an air of mystery to his artworks.
