Townscape M5 1968

Gerhard Richter made this painting called "Townscape M5," with oil on canvas, and the brushwork seems urgent, as though he’s chasing after something elusive. The palette's all grays and whites, which mutes the scene, creating a sense of distance. I imagine Richter squinting, trying to capture the essence of a place through veils of atmosphere. The paint looks applied in confident strokes. There is one thick, dark, diagonal stroke that dominates the composition, a bold, defining gesture. I wonder if Richter was thinking about the post-war rebuilding, about creating a visual language to depict the world anew. Maybe he had a photograph next to him and was slowly trying to forget it. Richter's work often dances between abstraction and representation. He explores how we perceive reality through images and blurs the lines between memory and experience. It's like he's saying, "Here's a town, but it's also a feeling, a ghost of a place."