7.24.94 1994

Gerhard Richter made this painting, 7.24.94, without a title, just a date, it looks like he’s exploring what happens when a series of horizontal brushstrokes meet a set of more vertical, but much softer and more thinly applied marks. The texture here is key; you can almost feel the drag of the brush across the surface, especially in those solid bands of beige and brown. Then there are the blue-gray strokes that almost seem to float on top, like ghostly echoes of something more substantial. The way he’s built up these layers creates a kind of visual rhythm, a back-and-forth between solidity and ethereality. Look closely at the lower-left corner, you can see how one of the vertical strokes seems to bleed into the horizontal band, blurring the lines between figure and ground. It’s like Richter is inviting us to question what we see, to embrace the ambiguity and uncertainty of perception. For me it brings to mind the work of Agnes Martin, in its quiet intensity and exploration of the sublime through simple forms.