SEASCAPE (WITH OLIVE CLOUDS) [SEESTÜCK (OLIV BEWÖLKT)], 1969

Some of Richter’s Seascapes are based on a collage of two different photographs, one for the sky and one for the sea, in an effort to make the perfect image. They thus introduce an anachronistic pristine world where the sky and the sea seem to come from different times, in a deceptive composition where perspective and light catch the viewer’s eye. The flat cotton clouds hide the painter’s brushstrokes, as if the painting were a mechanical reproduction.