128 Details from a Picture (Halifax 1978)

In the summer of 1978 Gerhard Richter took photographs of the surface of one of his small oil sketches on canvas. The photographs were taken from various sides, from various angles, various distances, and under various light conditions.

The resulting 128 photographs were organized in two versions: one, in sequential order that is presented as a book, and a second version which is presented in grid-form.

He also projected the slides onto larger canvases then painted soft, loose interpretations of the small studies. Here is Abstraktes Bild Nr. 439 (79″ x 118″) at the Tate.

The look of Richter’s surfaces brings to mind Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp’s 1920 collaboration Dust Breeding, a photo document of The Large Glass after it had collected a year’s worth of dust.

All of this brings to mind the mysterious photos you were taking in January 2019. Brilliant!!! Already you were ahead of this lesson. So for Now, Lesson One continue with your close-up observations.