The present work, a digital inkjet print of the artist’s 1965 painting Vorhang III (hell), offers a photographic impressionist depiction of domestic iconography. Populating the picture plane, monochromatic bars and pleated structures align in formation. Rendered in a range of grey, the image appears out of focus; hazy and unstable, imprecise yet a clear and succinct portrayal; one that is devoid of pictorial hierarchy, as Richter comments, ‘I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant’ (Gerhard Richter, ‘Notizen 1964-1965’, in Richter , 2008, p.33).
Espousing a quasi trompe l’oeil aesthetic, the curtain as a reoccurring motif was inspired by and related to Richter’s studio. Influenced by his immediate surroundings, Richter hung one of his first small curtain paintings next to its tangible counterpart in his studio in Düsseldorf. This paradoxical perception calls in to question the very act of seeing, as Richter notes, ‘Lack of focus is…important to me because I cannot see it exactly anyway and do not know it.’ (Gerhard Richter, ‘Statement, 10. Oktober 1973’, republished in Richter , 2008, p. 84). Investigating painting as a spatially coherent representation of real and imagined subject matter, Richter’s Curtain Series is a testament to the calibre of Richter’s prolific and stylistically varied artistic production, reaffirming his rank as one of the most important painters of our time.