4096 Colours 1974

This painting, "4096 Colours," was made by Gerhard Richter, but I'm not sure exactly when. Imagine Richter, or someone else, methodically applying each square of color, one by one. I get the feeling of a kind of systematic, almost meditative process. There are so many colours here, but they mix into an overall impression of… static, almost like a broken TV screen. It’s a little bit unsettling! But in a good way, maybe? I can imagine him thinking about color theory, about how colours interact and affect each other when he made this. This idea of repetition and variation reminds me of the work of other painters like Agnes Martin, but Richter’s got this digital edge. Ultimately, painting is a conversation, a back-and-forth across time. It's like a dialogue of color, form, and texture. There’s no one right way to read it, and that's what makes it so alive.