Seated Group 1962

Richard Artschwager made this Seated Group, and it looks like he was thinking about how to make something familiar feel totally strange. The grayscale palette gives the scene a kind of washed-out, ghostly vibe. It looks as though he’s scrubbed the paint into the canvas, almost like he’s trying to erase the image as he’s creating it. Look closely at the seated figures, the way they almost dissolve into the background, their features reduced to simple, blocky shapes. There's a tension between representation and abstraction. We recognize the scene, but the details are obscured, leaving us with a sense of unease. Artschwager’s use of industrial materials, like Celotex, often gave his work a kind of rough, utilitarian feel. It’s like he’s saying, “Hey, art doesn’t have to be precious.” Think about Gerhard Richter’s blurred paintings; they both play with the idea of how images can be both present and absent, clear and ambiguous. Ultimately, this piece reminds us that art isn’t about providing answers but about asking questions.