24-3-86

By applying pigment to the surface of a photograph, Gerhard Richter questions the objective reality that it seems to document. Through strokes of paint, we see glimpses of the view lying underneath and recognize the rhythmic pattern of a rippling water surface. However, the acrylic paint interferes with our perception of an illusory three-dimensional space. The painterly, multicolored impasto, juxtaposed against the smooth, finished, monochromatic image, draws attention to the photograph as a two-dimensional reproduction, stressing the photograph's artifice.