718-9 Abstract Painting

In this small work by German artist Gerhard Richter, lower paint strata of orange and red are exposed through the dragging, from right to left, of an upper field of black, white, and blue pigment across the canvas; these intermingle and blend together in a densely layered work that seems to crackle and pop with suffused energy. The brush or palette knife used to drag the paint was apparently lifted up on the left third of the canvas, creating a sponge-like effect. Richter was born in Dresden and studied there until his move in 1961 to West Germany. In his earlier works of the 1960s, Richter painted enlarged copies of black-and- white photographs, often in a hazy, indistinct manner. In the 1970s, he turned to more abstract works, using bright colors, and a gestural application of medium. The AMAM's collection of contemporary and Minimalist works is particularly strong in the decades of the 1960s and '70s, but the museum has made a point of continuing to collect in the contemporary arena, as evidenced by the present work, which also continues the museum's tradition of collecting twentieth-century German works, such as those in its acclaimed collection of Expressionist art, by artists such as Kirchner, Pechstein, and Schmidt-Rottluff.