Gerhard Richter declares his art “a secretive affair.” As such, this new documentary is a rare peek into the inspirations behind the creative process of this 80 year old artist. The artist’s actual method for creating his blurred photo-realistic visions had remained a puzzle for many of his fans. The film reveals Richter painting with a long lath, wiping the paint over the canvas repeatedly in a slow, glacial process, like a plasterer smoothing down a wall making delicious squelching sounds.
For more conceptual and historical explanations, the tight-lipped painter is less forthcoming, and the film is more a meditative journey into the artist’s mind, watching a painting morph over time, crystallizing gradually, until with his final strokes, Richter declares the painting finished – a moment which may seem mysteriously arbitrary to the viewer, is that critical point for Richter when he considers there’s nothing more ‘wrong’ with the painting.

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Gerhard Richter: On Blurring Reality