Untitled (Gemusterte Plastikfolie, Streifen) 1966

Konrad Lueg made this untitled piece with I think plastic and paint, though I can't tell when exactly. The horizontal stripes and pale, blobby form are like a game of hide-and-seek on a very cool, controlled playground. There's something about the surface quality that gets me. The cool industrial feel plays against the blobby, organic shape. I love the way that the black lines look almost printed, so mechanical and flat, yet the way they are arranged is so playful. Notice the way the white circle sits slightly raised from the surface. This disrupts the flatness of the painted surface and messes with our perception. Lueg's contemporary, Gerhard Richter, played with similar ideas around abstraction, pop and the everyday. Both artists were thinking through what painting could be after Abstract Expressionism. For me, this piece is about the joy of seeing, and how visual simplicity can be so rewarding.