Gerhard Richter uses an incredibly wide range of color and media. Richter's paintings entitled 4900 colors was his mock-up, in a sense, for the stained glass windows of the Cologne Cathedral. It's amazing to see contemporary abstraction in a place such as a Cathedral where structure and ritual more typical.
Gerhard says this:
"I don't create blurs. Blurring is not the most important thing: nor is it an identity tag for my pictures. When I dissolve demarcations and create transitions, this is not in order to destroy the representation, or to make it more artistic or less precise. The flowing transitions, the smooth, equalizing surface, clarify the content and make the representation credible (an alla prima impasto would be too reminiscent of painting, and would destroy the illusion)."
I love this. At times, it is so hard for me to explain myself, and why I enjoy the aesthetic that I do, that when I stumble across someone so accomplished who is able to enunciate a fragment of what I'm feeling, it's a relief. Richter's blurred paintings are what his above quote is referring to. The paintings have the quality of blurred photographs. This makes me think of what Paul said again, about how a painter can recreate the work, but as a photographer it's occasionally more random. It's been really good for me to look at the work of abstract painters.
Richter's "overpainted photographs" series is inspiring. He makes such stunning objects that are often so simple. The way he influences color is so incredible. I love the many directions Richter's work has gone in; he is a painter, a photographer, and he seamlessly combines the two.
I get so frustrated that blogger has an image limit!! I want to post more images per post.
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