Ohne Titel (Vorstudie für Bildtuch »Miss September 1966«) 1979

Markus Raetz made this Vorstudie, or preliminary study, for his screenprint Miss September 1966, with an unknown medium. Isn’t it wild how a simple dot can become something so complex? The dots work together, playing this game of being on the surface and creating depth, which echoes Raetz’s wider interest in perception, and how it can trick us. The dots appear as cyan, magenta, and yellow. These pure hues build the image up, or dissolve it, in this crazy push-pull of color. I keep thinking about the lower left corner, where the colors loosen and space out, it looks almost like things are dematerializing, fading away into the white of the paper. This piece reminds me of the work of Sigmar Polke. Both artists play with mechanical reproduction and the blur between high and low art. Ultimately, this piece shows how something calculated and repetitive can become its own kind of intuitive expression.