Year: 2001
Medium: oil on color photograph
Dimensions: 14.6 x 10.2 cm (4 × 6 in.)
Acquired from PHILLIPS, 2022
As, Newspapers are spread out in the room when one is peeking through the unpainted parts of this work. This is from the “Overpainted Photographs” series and is considered to be a good example of what Richter’s concept of abstract is all about. The word “Abstract” conveys the concept of “drawing off from” a symbolic representation and generalizing it. Although abstract paintings are commonly misinterpreted as not expressing particularly anything, instead of depicting specific forms in their original state, tangible and intangible properties (concepts) are preserved. In this work, seemingly random application of paint on top of a photograph with clearly visible objects, and how Richter abstractly intervenes in the concrete world with his attempted results, all convey Richter’s concept of abstraction in a direct manner.
