7.24.94 1994

Gerhard Richter made this painting, 7.24.94, with oil on paper, and I can only imagine it came into being through shifts, erasures, and maybe a bit of intuition. Just picturing Richter in the studio—what was he thinking on that day in ‘94? I see these horizontal bands of pale yellow and ochre, like layers of light, interrupted by pale blue vertical strokes. The paint isn’t exactly thick, but you can see the texture, the way the brush dragged across the surface. There's a gesture in the way those blue marks are applied, they're so evenly spaced, like he’s setting up a grid. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s quiet rigor, but with a looser, more painterly touch. It’s like he’s creating a structure, then letting the paint breathe and, as with much of Richter's work, embrace ambiguity.