SEASCAPE (GREY) [SEESTÜCK (GRAU)], 1969

In Seascape (grey) [Seestück (grau), 1969)], the thick abstract brushstrokes make the specifics of the seascape disappear to transform the canvas into a monochromatic grey painting. Richter began his grey painting series in 1967―a series of canvases where, initially, he created abstract compositions out of concrete images. It seems as if the artist would have wanted to destroy an image―or maybe treasure it―, thus producing, in Richter’s words, the “most strictly illusory paintings of all.”