Conceptual Art/Abstract

1. Appearances - focus Gerhard Richter

"Painting," Gerhard Richter has commented, "is the making of an analogy for something nonvisual and incomprehensible: giving it form and bringing it within reach." (Gerhard Richter Portraits. Painting Appearances. by Paul Moorhouse. National Portrait Gallery, London. 2009). His early work is of blurred figurative paintings, both with and without colour followed by seductive abstract paintings, with a colour palette that is either brilliant or subdued. His surprisingly diverse range of work has received prolonged discussion from critics, especially due to Richter's disregard for traditional stylistic progression and his use of photographs. Richter has tried to subvert the hierarchy of art and the everyday. "I believe in nothing", he has said. Examples of Richter's diverse work both figurative and abstract: Firenze 2000. Abstract Painting 1995. Apple Trees 1987. Abstract Painting 1984. Three Candles 1975. Abstract Painting 1975. Gilbert & George 1975.

2. Colour

"If you let your eye stray over a palette of colours ... you experience satisfaction and delight, like a gourmet savouring a delicacy. Or the eye is stimulated as the tongue is titillated by a spicy dish. But then it grows calm and cool, like a finger after touching ice. There are physical sensations, limited in duration. They are superficial too and leave no lasting impression behind if the soul remains closed." Wassily Kandinsky is referring to the effect of colour, from his book Concerning The Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky: "Colour provokes a psychic vibration. Colour hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body." Yellow, Red, Blue Wassily Kandinsky 1925. Composition X Wassily Kandinsky 1939.

Other artists who share Kandinsky's search for colour balance and sensitivity are: Josef Albers. Pablo Picasso. Matisse. Adrian Schiess Frank Stella. Howard Hodgkin. Photographers Ernst Haas and Joel Meyerowitz. The Fauves. Colour Field painters (Morris Louis, Hans Hofmann, Kenneth Noland). Girl with Parrot Pierre Bonnard 1910. La Vie Pablo Picasso 1903. Three Musicians Pablo Picasso 1921. Torn Poster III - Face, NYC Ernst Haas 1960. Joel Meyerowitz. In Bed in Venice 1984 1988 by Howard Hodgkin. Homage to the square Josef Albers 1964. Equinox Hans Hofmann 1958. Beatriz Milhazes Sequence No. 11 Jegori Koski 2003.

See also: Elements of Art & Design: Colour and Simultaneous Contrast.