Born in 1932, Gerhard Richter is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German artists. His signature style involves working in an almost automatic mode, combining a series of layers, scrapes and smears on a typically large canvas. Using a massive squeegee, he paints the canvas, only to obliterate his marks with a swipe of his smearing instrument. The result are abstractions that reveal in a riot of sumptuous colors that revel in the pure energy of its creation. as can be seen in the following work entitled “Abstraktes Bild 680” painted in 1998.

Here, an abundance of yellow on the topmost layer blends with a dizzying mix of red, pink, blue, green, black, white and various other hues in between, evoking the feeling of being right in the middle of an untamed forest lit by the arrows of the sun.

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