Reihe 1963

Gunter Fruhtrunk made this painting, Reihe, of stripes and rectangles, with paint, and maybe some tape to get those lines so clean. The texture here isn’t about thick globs of paint; it’s smooth, almost like it was airbrushed on, everything cool and even. Look at how those black and white bars kinda vibrate against each other, creating this almost optical illusion effect. It's like a puzzle, how everything fits together, but it's not too easy to solve. And then, bam! There’s that purple, sitting just next to the black, shaking things up. Fruhtrunk reminds me a little bit of Bridget Riley, but maybe with a bit more of a hard edge. This piece feels like a conversation, or maybe an argument, about how much a painting can make you see, and how little it needs to say.