E xecuted in 1987, Abstraktes Bild (649-2) is a breathtakingly stunning early archetype of the Gerhard Richter’s best-known series. Following a corpus of nascent abstractions executed between the years of 1980-85, from 1986 onwards Richter would relinquish any planned compositional elements of form and structure in favor more predominantly of the indeterminate scrape and accretion of the ‘squeegee’. As laid down in the present work across seemingly photographic layers of pearlescent underpainting, Richter has waged a battle between the squeegee and the brush, orchestrating a sublime symphony of chance, layering, erasure and chromatic power. Horizontal veils of stuttering paint present a riposte to the vertical drag of wide brushstrokes, both of which are punctuated by finer and more angular accents. The result is a mesmerizing field in which painterly elements both spar against and complement each other while the paint’s chromatic value injects this piece with an undisputed brilliance. Indeed, the balance between hard and soft, structural solidity and phosphorescence, photographic and the abstract, renders the present work a remarkable exposition of the very apogee of Richter’s abstract canon.

Texture, colour and structure are deployed in Abstraktes Bild (649-2) with force and sensitivity to engender a seductive painterly synthesis visually aligned to an exquisite and strikingly atmospheric evocation. Though comprising infinite tonal variations and intimations of abyssal layers beyond the picture plane, Abstraktes Bild (649-2) is nonetheless a cancellation of the kind of transcendental sacred image space pioneered by Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Franz Kline. As outlined by Benjamin Buchloh: “[I]f the ability of colour to generate this emotional, spiritual quality is presented and at the same time negated at all points, surely its always cancelling itself out. With so many combinations, so many permutational relationships, there can’t be any harmonious chromatic order, or compositional either, because there are no ordered relations left either in the colour system or the spatial system” (Benjamin Buchloh, ‘An Interview with Gerhard Richter’ (1986) in: Benjamin Buchloh, Ed., Gerhard Richter: October Files, Massachusetts 2009, pp. 23-24). The exuberant strata of paint bear the ghosts of previous accretions and colour juxtapositions applied, erased, remade and obliterated over again. Such chromatic and compositional negations represent Richter’s rebuttal of the bold idealism of 1950s abstraction: "Pollock, Barnett Newman, Franz Kline, their heroism derived from the climate of their time, but we do not have this climate" (Richter quoted in: Michael Kimmelmann, ‘Gerhard Richter: An Artist Beyond Isms’, The New York Times, January 27, 2002, n.p.). Rather, the climate we do have, and the climate Richter’s entire production concerns itself with, is our contemporary age of the photographic.

Coming full circle from the earliest Photo Paintings, the present work witnesses the full induction of the squeegee as the principal compositional agent. This in turn invited the means through which Richter was able to instigate “Photography by other means” (Kaja Silverman, Flesh of My Flesh, California 2009, p. 173). As redolent in Abstraktes Bild (649-2), the sheen of immaculate colour and endless permutations mimic the aesthetic of a cibachrome print, while a distinctly photographic quality is compounded by the out-of focus consistency of the sweeping accretions of paint. Evoking a blurred, half-seen or remembered image and imploring the same cognitive viewing experience as his photo works, the hazy coagulation of endlessly scraped pigment forms an extraordinary repost to the canon of abstraction via the photographic, mechanical and the aleatory. Within the sheer excess of layering and dynamic compositional facture this painting emits an extraordinary wealth of enigmatic yet recognisable evocation. The incessant erasure and denial of formal resolution induces a reading of phenomological forms associated with those found in nature. Readily evoking natural experiences such as rain, water erosion, or light streaming through a window, the Abstract works derive their affect from a spontaneous naturalism. Where Richter’s Photo Paintings fall away into abstraction, the Abstrakte Bilder return us to a suggestion of referentiality.

As many scholars of Richter’s work have pointed out, it is apt to note that the collective title for the abstract paintings, Abstrakte Bilder, is not a straightforward translation; rather, the closest equivalent to the original German is Abstract Pictures: by his own admission, Richter is not creating paintings but instead making images. The abstract works thus picture a post-photographic painterly image space nascently forged within the blur of the Photo Paintings and fully articulated in the large-scale squeegee abstractions. As art historian Peter Osborne outlines: “Richter’s abstract images are images of this image space itself. In this respect they are still ‘photo paintings’, but in an ontologically deeper sense than the phrase conveys when used as a designation for the earlier, more particularistically ‘photo-based’ work” (Peter Osborne, ‘Abstract Images: Sign, Image and Aesthetic in Gerhard Richter’s Painting’ in: Benjamin Buchloh, Ed., op. cit., p. 109). Abstraktes Bild (649-2) is a consummate example of the type of ‘videotic’ effect mentioned by Osborne. Via a crackling, distortive fuzz redolent within miraculous sheens of colour, this painting's purely abstract field of painterly variegation unmistakably bears the mark of televisual opticality. Having sought new ways to paint that rally against “redundant” figuration and the “inflated subjectivism, idealism, and existential weightlessness” of Modernist abstraction, Richter’s Abstrakte Bilder picture an assertion of abstract painting, not only in the face of photography which lies at the root of painting’s crisis, but immersed in its digital glow (Peter Osborne, ‘Painting Negation: Gerhard Richter’s Negatives’, October, vol. 62, Autumn, 1992, p. 104).

Gerhard Richter’s unprecedented art of abstraction stands as ultimate culmination to the epic journey of his career, during which he has ceaselessly interrogated the limits of representation, the nature of perception and the operations of visual cognition. Variously evoking something of Monet’s translation of his garden at Giverny, Rothko’s exuberance of transformative colour, Kline’s structural expressionism, Pollock’s instigation of autonomous composition, and de Kooning’s transferal of the figural to the abstract, Richter’s abstraction is ultimately without comparison. Herein, the vast expanse of Abstraktes Bild (649-2) is utterly replete with the most spectacular colour, form and texture; a sheer cliff face of unadulterated expression as delivered by the world’s greatest living painter. Within the field of this canvas, acts of unfathomable chaos have touched something not quite of this realm, creating, in short, something that is phenomenal.

《抽象畫》繪於1987年，源自格哈德・里希特最著名的作品系列，是系列中矚目驚人的早期典例。在1980至85年期間，里希特創作了多幅風格未臻成熟的初期抽象作品；自1986年開始，他決意在作品中捨棄所有刻意安排的構圖形象元素與結構，主要傾向以模糊不清的擦刮手法，以及採用「刮墨刀」來堆疊顏料。如同本作所示，里希特在畫面上塗抹多層珠光底漆，讓作品呈現攝影照片般的效果，在畫筆與刮墨刀之間發動一場激烈的拉鋸戰，演奏出一首由偶然性、複合層次、塗抹顏料及色彩力量譜成的壯麗交響曲。畫面上，堆疊的顏料結合成多片橫向色塊，侵入以寬闊筆觸拖曳而成的垂直色條中；一些較為細膩、更具稜角的濃厚色斑在兩者之間縱橫交錯，形成一片扣人心弦的濃彩色域，當中的畫面元素既相輔相成，又同時互相抗衡；顏料的飽和色澤，則無容置疑地為作品賦予了璀璨的閃耀光彩。由此，堅硬與柔軟、固態結構與熠熠磷光、攝影式圖像與抽象之間互相平衡，使本作成為里希特抽象巔峰鉅作的優秀典範。

里希特以力量和敏銳觸覺，為《抽象畫》添上色彩、創造質感與結構，成就出誘惑迷人的複合畫面，營造出一片精美矚目、大氣磅礡的視覺景象。雖然本作由變化無窮的萬千色相以及發自色層深處、超越畫幅以外的寓義交織而成，《抽象畫》本身卻否定了馬克・羅斯科、巴奈特・紐曼和弗朗茲・克萊恩所開創的超然神聖圖像空間。正如本傑明・布赫洛所概述：「色彩的力量能夠孕育出如斯情感與靈性本質，如果它能得以體現，同時在各個方面都被否定，可以肯定地說，它總是不斷地自我抵銷。它的組合如此之多、可撤換的關係如此之多，在色彩系統或空間系統中都缺乏有序的組織關係，因此不可能形成和諧的色階或構圖」（本傑明・布赫洛撰，〈採訪格哈德・里希特〉（1986年）：引自本傑明・布赫洛編，《格哈德・里希特：十月檔案》，馬薩諸塞州，2009年，頁23-24）。畫面上五彩繽紛的色層，保留了先前一再塗抹、擦除、重刷並抹滅的堆疊顏料與並置色彩的隱約痕跡，互相共冶一爐；這種對色相及構圖元素的否定，是里希特對1950年代抽象主義大膽理想的反駁：「波拉克、巴奈特・紐曼和弗朗茲・克萊恩的英雄主義源自當時的社會風潮，但這種風潮現已過時」（引自里希特，邁克爾・金梅爾曼撰，〈格哈德・里希特：無主義藝術家〉，《紐約時報》，2002年1月27日，無頁數）。反之，現時的社會風潮，以及里希特在整個創作過程中所探討的思潮，正是我們現正身處的當下影像時代。

本作見證著里希特在創作上全面採用「刮墨刀」作為他的主要繪畫工具，回歸最早期《攝影繪畫》系列的起點。憑藉這種創作手法，里希特最終創造出「其他製作照片的方式」（卡婭・西爾弗曼撰，《我的血軀》，加州，2009年，頁173）。如同《抽象畫》所示，完美的色彩光澤與無窮無盡的色相組合彼此交融，摹仿銀染漂白印相（Cibachrome）的美學表現；同時，畫面上的大片顏料積塊，營造出一種整體的離焦效果，加強了作品的照片質感。不斷積攢的顏料層凝聚成薄霧濛濛的色塊，令人聯想起模糊不清、半遮半掩的記憶圖像，為觀眾帶來與里希特攝影作品相同的認知觀賞體驗，透過攝影式圖像、機械性與隨機性，在抽象主義領域上創出另一個非凡絕倫的嶄新詮釋。在厚重累贅的色層以及充滿動感的構圖手法之中，本作流露出內涵豐富、神秘莫測、卻又可以辨識的形態構想。這種對於形態解析的持續滅除與否定，引導出一種與自然界相關的現象學的形態解讀。《抽象畫》系列作品令人聯想到突如其來的自然現象，例如雨水、土壤侵蝕或從窗外投射進來的光線。雖然里希特的《攝影繪畫》系列投入了抽象界別，《抽象畫》卻為我們提供了一種現實的指涉。

正如許多研究里希特作品的學者所指出，值得留意的是，這些抽象畫作的標題統稱——《抽象畫》，並非字面上的直接翻譯；反之，最接近原本德語標題「Abstrakte Bilder」的翻譯應為「抽象照片」。里希特本人亦承認，他不是創作繪畫，而是在製作照片。這些抽象作品構建出一個後攝影式的繪畫圖像空間，在《攝影繪畫》的朦朧圖案中初次萌芽，隨後在「刮墨刀」大型抽象畫作中完整呈現。如同藝術史學家彼得・奧斯本（Peter Osborne）所概括：「里希特的抽象圖畫是圖像空間本身的反映。在這方面，它們仍然可稱為『攝影繪畫』；但以本體論看來，比起較早前特指『以照片為藍本』的作品時，它們傳遞的涵義比這字面意義更深（彼得・奧斯本撰，〈抽象圖案：里希特畫作中的符號、圖像與美學〉，引自本傑明・布赫洛編，《同上》，頁109）。《抽象畫》正是奧斯本所述、帶有「視像式」（videotic）效果的完美例作。本作中分裂扭曲的模糊形象，自一片令人讚嘆的亮麗色澤滲透而出；在斑駁紛雜的畫面上，純粹的抽象領域帶有清晰可辨的電視影像特徵。里希特成功以嶄新繪畫方式，對抗現代抽象主義的「多餘」形象與「過度膨脹的主觀主義、理想主義和存在失重感」，更在《抽象畫》中表達出他對抽象繪畫的主張；藉著這幅畫作，他不僅與構成繪畫淘汰危機的源頭——攝影照片正面交鋒，更令作品閃耀出如同相片般的數碼光華（彼得・奧斯本撰，〈繪畫否定：格哈德・里希特的否定創作〉，《十月號》，第62冊，1992年秋，頁104）。

格哈德・里希特的抽象藝術作品前無古人，是他壯闊雄奇的事業旅程的巔峰成就。在漫長的藝術生涯中，里希特孜孜不倦地探詢表達的極限、知覺的本質以及視覺感知的原理。他的抽象作品使人聯想起莫內筆下的吉維尼花園、羅斯科的豐富的變幻色彩、克萊恩的結構表現主義、波拉克自由率性的隨興構圖，以及德庫寧從具象走向抽象的風格蛻變，是無與倫比的藝術探索成果。《抽象畫》的宏大畫面上洋溢著紛華靡麗的色彩、形體與紋理，是這位在世最偉大畫家以純粹的表現形式構建的峻巖峭壁。在這畫幅裡，難解莫測的紛繁混沌觸及了異世界之境，讓人瞥見不可思議的超凡景象。