Monstein 1981

Gerhard Richter made this painting, Monstein, using oil on canvas. It's easy to get lost in Richter's paintings, they are less depictions, more experiences. I'm drawn to the almost monochromatic palette, muted grays, whites, and subtle pinks create a dreamlike quality. The texture is smooth, almost polished, which adds to the sense of distance and ethereality, like looking at a landscape through frosted glass. Look closely, and you’ll notice how the light seems to emanate from within the canvas, reflecting off the surface, it’s less about the specifics of the mountain and more about the feeling of being enveloped by it. Richter blurs the line between photography and painting, abstraction and representation, and in that ambiguity, he invites us to find our own way into the landscape, a bit like the way Agnes Martin does with a more minimal gesture.