Strip 2011

This is Gerhard Richter’s 'Strip', a work that seems to have been made by a machine rather than an artist. But look closer, and you see the hand in the slight wobble of each line, like a colour chart that’s gone gloriously wrong. What's interesting to me is that Richter always lets the process show. You see the layers, the drips, the imperfections, which are what make the painting feel so alive. Here, each stripe is so precise, yet the overall effect is one of shimmering, almost vibrating color. There's a playfulness in the way the colors interact, some clash, some harmonize, and it all feels completely intentional, like a controlled explosion. Richter's color choices always remind me a little of Josef Albers, who also explored how colors change depending on what they’re next to. But where Albers is all about control and precision, Richter is more about letting things happen, embracing the accidental. And isn't that what art is all about, really?