Flow (P6)

Altogether different in its relationship to abstraction and non-representation than other works in the Cage Prints, Cage f.ff and Cage Grid series, this print is saturated with a strong sense of movement, and indeed of the relative absence of any trace of its creator. We are used to seeing Richter’s abstract artworks as highly-complex paintings product of hours of deliberation, and an accretive painterly process that sees the artist add and subtract layers of paint with large, home-made ‘squeegees’. In this work, as in the rest of the Flow series, paint and colour moves independently, interacting with itself to leave a visual trace of fluid mechanics.

Destructive in the sense that it works to undo traditional methods of painting, this artwork can be seen as a direct relative of Richter’s many photorealist paintings, such as the world famous Betty. In these works, the rigid borders of form are elided by way of a ‘blurring’ technique. Commenting on his reasoning behind the blur technique, Richter once confessed: “I blur things so that they do not look artistic or craftsmanlike but technological, smooth and perfect. I blur things to make all the parts a closer fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.”