Seelandschaft (Ocean)

Seelandschaft (Ocean) contrives an unnaturally beautiful view of the ocean, its waves dramatically lit by an ominous glowing sky. Richter was trained in socialist East Germany before he fled to West Germany in 1961. Both the photorealism and the optimism of Socialist Realist painting can still be seen in his work. The prominent horizon line and the invitation into the picture plane via detailed textures in the foreground also recall German Romantic landscapes. Inserting himself into these artistic lineages, Richter composed this seascape by copying and joining separate photographs of the sky and ocean. The divisions of realism and abstraction, East and West, that run through Richter’s life are translated into a visual division along the horizon—suggesting that historical, romantic notions of nature are only possible today as simulations or fantasies.