Forest (12)

Gerhard Richter

2005

An oil on canvas in which Gerhard Richter scrapes and drags layered paint into vertical, mirror-like bands that evoke a forest without depicting it literally.

It reads like looking through rain‑streaked glass: cool silvery grays punctuated by faint greens and reds form vertical streaks and shimmering reflections, the surface revealing smeared, wiped, and dragged gestures.

Part of Richter’s investigation of the border between photography and painting, this work uses blur and surface manipulation to rethink representation and memory, helping to renew abstract painting for the contemporary moment.

Palette

Art Terms

Abstraction Oil paint Painting Canvas Allover painting Gestural Contemporary art Landscape

Exhibitions

Drawing in Austria and Germany

1985

Drawing since 1940

1987

BERLINART 1961–1987

1987

Watercolors: Selections from the Permanent Collection

1989