Bursting with exuberant color, gestural dynamism and compositional complexity, Gerhard Richter’s highly expressive Schwefel, produced in 1985, marks the genesis of the artist’s iconic Abstrakte Bilder; a body of work that revolutionized the historic progression of Western abstraction by injecting the weathered doctrine of formalism with much needed existential verve. Richter’s monumental painting, measuring over nine feet wide and six feet tall, immerses viewers in a pictorial adventure that leads them to contend with the mercuriality of paint. In Richter’s Schwefel, one observes a mature artist who, despite being a renowned skeptic of formalism, has clearly mastered the fundamental tenets of the medium. His varied techniques in manipulating paint, not merely for the sake of it, but as a means for representing an unknowable reality, imbue his Abstrakte Bilder with an indelible metaphysical dimension. Richter’s technical agility manifests with considerable force in Schwefel, evident in the translucent white plane that latitudinally bisects the painting’s upper-half area; the fragmented red and black squeegeed forms that occupy the work’s right side; and the broad brush-applied green gestural stroke that hovers in the painting’s center. Schwefel also showcases Richter’s high aptitude for composition, as the unperturbed yellow-green negative space on the left half of the canvas contrasts beautifully with the dynamism of the interacting variegated forms on the canvas’s right-half, establishing a dramatically resolved visual equilibrium. Moreover, by recalling Richter’s earlier abstract works of the 1970s and anticipating the entirely squeegeed paintings of the late 1980s, Schwefel presents itself as an open-ended negotiation of the artist’s widely celebrated styles.

Schwefel was assiduously created over a period of several months, in tandem with other large abstract works present in Richter’s Cologne studio. As art historian, Roald Nasgaard notes: “Richter will begin a new group of paintings by placing a number of white canvases around the walls of his studio, eventually working on several or all of them at the same time “like a chessplayer simultaneously playing on several boards." (Roald Nasgaard, Gerhard Richter Paintings, Toronto, 1988, p. 108) Thereafter, Richter follows a meticulous process to realize his spectacular abstract compositions, of which Schwefel is a quintessential example. First, Richter applies a soft ground of color to the canvas, a deep earthy green in the case of the present work. Second, the artist alters this simple composition with a first form, such as “a large brush stroke, a track of color drawn out with a squeegee, a geometric shape.” (Ibid.) Gradually, the composition takes shape evolving through many stages, each stage giving rise to a unique ordering of colored forms. According to Richter, the painting is finished “when there is no more that I can do to them, when they exceed me, or they have something that I can no longer keep up with.” (Ibid.) Unlike the radical spontaneity seen in mid-century Abstract Expressionism, such as in Pollock’s drip paintings, Richter’s abstract paintings are constructed with great deliberation, exhibiting the artist’s utter dedication to the medium and process-driven approach. The artist’s protracted painting process also explains the dense layering of color that appears in the right-half of Schwefel. Richter, however, allows a certain degree of chance in his process. For example, his adept use of the squeegee, evident in the ethereal forms that dominate the right side of the canvas, mediate the unplanned effects of the instrument with the artist’s pictorial calculations. As the artist put it: “I control being spontaneous.” (Gerhard Richter quoted in Michael Danoff, Gerhard Richter Paintings, Toronto, 1988, p. 12)

Richter's entirely abstract vernacular first emerged in earnest in 1977, building upon the artist’s earlier photo-realist works produced in the previous decade. In the early phase of his career, Richter adopted a nihilistic worldview, using his art to model the elusiveness and uncertainty of reality. The photo-realist paintings, noteworthy for their blurred quality, allude to reality’s ambiguity and ephemerality, urge viewers to contemplate the nature of perception, and, in particular, the delicate relationship between what something is and how that thing is represented. In these early works, Richter emphasizes the importance of neutral, impersonal expression as an appropriate interrogation of the external world, hence his affinity for photographic visuals. However, in 1976, after he painted a series of grey monochrome paintings, Richter reached a critical turning point in his trajectory, switching focus from the reality of the external world to his inner world, the realm of his emotions and personality. As Richter states: “the abstract works are my presence, my reality, my problems, my difficulties and contradictions.” (Ibid., p. 9) Schwefel thus embodies a critical period in Richter’s oeuvre, one in which he shifts gears toward a completely abstract mode of painting, while retaining evidence of his earlier photo-paintings inthe blured haze of color gradation that dominates the lefthand part of this masterful canvas. Furthermore, expressionistic appearance of Schwefel represents Richter coming to terms with the unintelligibility of reality, deciding to celebrate the complexity and richness of life rather than acquiesce in existential despair. Viewed in this manner, each painting Richter produces functions as a conscious act of self-affirmation, a way to assure himself of his own existence, despite his uneasiness about the incomprehensibility of reality.

Schwefel occupies a fascinating, unprecedented, and almost paradoxical position in the art historical canon. Evoking the grandeur of historical genre paintings and the experimental rigor of the avant-garde, Richter’s work gracefully merges the traditional practice of painting with the vanguard sensibility of formal experimentation. Furthermore, Richter’s paintings engage in an unapologetic search for beauty, going against the postmodernist emphasis on irony and subversion. As the artist remarked: “’Beauty has become a downgraded word, but that shouldn’t be the case, because we would all like to be healthy, perfect, fulfilled – the opposite of war, crime and sickness. I see beauty in all the works we cherish.” (Gerhard Richter quoted in Michael Danoff, Gerhard Richter Paintings, Toronto, 1988, p. 12) These qualities gift Schwefel with a self-renewing timelessness, evidencing the artist’s conceptualist diligence, subtle romanticism and distinctive reworking of art history.

Conveying unspeakable but universally acknowledged truths, Richter’s Schwefel articulates the possibility for art to transcend its social context. In the artist’s words: “With abstract painting we create a better means of approaching what can neither be seen nor understood because abstract painting illustrates with the greatest clarity, that is to say, with all the means at the disposal of art, 'nothing'… we allow ourselves to see the un-seeable, that which has never before been seen and indeed is not visible.” (Gerhard Richter quoted in Roald Nasgaard, Gerhard Richter Paintings, Toronto, 1988, p. 107) Viewed from this perspective, Richter’s existentially oriented paintings daringly probe the epistemological boundaries of human existence. Playful in its extroverted color palette yet sincere in its philosophical commitments, Richter’s Schwefel is a testament to the artist’s inimitable skill and unyielding intellect.

《硫》作於1985年，它的色彩靡麗、姿態歡愉、構圖錯綜複雜，不僅是一幅精彩絕倫的傑作，還標誌著格哈德・里希特經典系列《抽象畫》的開端。《抽象畫》系列為當時停滯不前的形式主義注入新動力，顛覆了人們對西方抽象藝術的認識。巨作《硫》寬逾9呎、高6呎。觀者彷如置身於色彩幻變的世界，出席一場視覺盛宴。眾所周知，里希特一直對形式主義抱懷疑態度。但在《硫》中，我們樂見藝術家其實已完全掌握形式主義根本的繪畫法則。他技法多樣，但目的不只為求變，而是希望以各種手法表達一個未知的境界。這未知境界最終成為了他著名的「抽象畫」系列中那令人難忘、超越形體的維度。其中《硫》更淋漓盡致地展現出藝術家熟練的技法。一道純白通透的積塊劃過畫面上方；以長形刮板刮壓而成的紅、黑形態佈滿右方；寬闊的艷綠筆觸擦過畫心中央。構圖方面，里希特同樣別出心裁。為了動靜的平衡，他特別於畫的左邊添上一片黃綠的負空間，其穩重的形態與另一端生機勃勃的躍動節奏形成強烈對比。由此可見，《硫》就彷如一道橋樑，連接藝術家70年代早期的抽象創作和80年代後期徹底摒棄畫筆、只用刮板的作品，遊走於他各種備受推崇的藝術風格之間。

《硫》歷時數月完成，期間里希特孜孜不倦地創作的同時，亦要兼顧自己位於科隆工作室內的其他大型抽象畫。正如藝術史學家羅亞·納斯伽所道：「開始著手創作新一批作品時，里希特會圍繞自己的工作室，依牆放置數張畫布，並同時埋首於幾幅、甚至全部畫布之中，猶如一個同時參與數盤棋局的棋手」（羅亞·納斯伽著，《格哈德·里希特油畫》，多倫多，1988年，頁108）。後來，藝術家按照一個更細密的模式去完成壯麗的抽象大作，而《硫》可算當中的佼佼者。里希特首先為畫布塗上一層柔和的色調。以《硫》為例，藝術家選用了一種幽深的苔綠色。然後，他開始繪上第一個形狀，從而改變這個簡單的構圖。這形狀可以是「一道寬闊的筆觸、一行擦刮顏料而成的軌跡、一個幾何的圖案。」（同上）漸漸地，構圖就會開始按部就班地成形，每一階段各自浮現出一個以顏色和形狀為主旋律的節奏。如里希特自己所說，「當我已不能再為一幅畫做點什麼，當我已被它超越，當我已不能再追趕上它」（同上），就是作品大功告成之時。有別於二十世紀中期，例如波拉克的滴畫等抽象畫中對隨心隨興的執著，里希特的抽象畫需要的是藝術家的熟慮與深思，它們蘊含的是他對媒介的著迷和過程主導的哲理。《硫》右方層疊的色塊，正是里希特極度耗時的創作過程的最佳佐證。然而，藝術家仍容許自己作品中存有一定程度的隨機性。譬如透過使用刮板，他就能平衡自己對構圖上的執著和畫具所帶來的未知性。畫中右方拖拉而成的積塊，就是憑藉此平衡而成。正如藝術家說：「我支配著自己的隨心所欲」（引述自藝術家，米高·丹諾夫著，《格哈德・里希特油畫》，多倫多，1988年，頁12）。

里希特完全抽象的藝術系統始於1977年，而他上個年代的照相寫實主義作品則成為了這抽象系統的基礎。在那較早的時期，里希特信奉虛無主義，旨在用藝術去塑造真相背後那模糊、難以觸碰的世界觀。那時期的照片繪畫以其標誌性的朦朧感道出一瞬即逝、模凌兩可的「真相」。觀者不得不由此反思自己感知的可靠性，思索事物的本身與事物的呈現之間那微妙的關係。換句話說，要理解里希特早期作品的照相寫實風格，就先要理解他那時期所強調以中立、客觀手法去審視外面世界的主張。到了1976年，里希特畫好一系列灰色的單色畫後，他便迎來自己藝術旅途的一大轉捩點。他此時毅然由「外界」走向「內界」，那一屬於自己情感和認知的所在。如藝術家自己所言：「抽象作品是我的存在、我的真相、我的煩惱、我的困難與矛盾」（同上，頁9）。《硫》所體現的正好是藝術家這時的臨界點。誠然，此作左面還保留了早期照片繪畫那些昏暗的朦朧感，但更為觸目的是他那全然的抽象境界。《硫》繽紛的一面 ，襯托出里希特已欣然接受真相是無法言喻的事實。此時的他自覺不能再沉溺於絕望中，反而要歌頌生命。雖然藝術家對真相的不確定性依然感到不安，但他每一幅作品都是自我肯定、自我存在的有力證明。

於藝術史中，《硫》佔據了一個空前、甚至乎是弔詭的特殊位置。此作既有歷史畫的宏偉，又有前衛藝術的氣度，可說是結合了傳統繪畫技法與實驗形式藝術的領先精神。同時，里希特的作品皆代表一種對「美」的追求，反對後現代主義那些諷刺、叛逆的思想。如藝術家自述：「現今『美』一詞已成俗話。但其實不應如此，皆因我們都希望成為一個健康、完美、富足的人，遠離戰爭、罪惡與疾病。我在大家珍而重之的作品中，看到了『美』」（引述自藝術家，米高·丹諾夫著，《格哈德・里希特油畫》， 多倫多，1988年，頁12）。這些特質見證里希特對概念藝術的堅持和爛漫之心，促使《硫》成為一件能超越時間、重新審視藝術史觀的奇作，並以傳奇的姿態延續下去。

顯然，《硫》印證了藝術能超脫時空的說法。它道出那不能言喻、卻人所共知的真理。引用藝術家自己的話語：「通過抽象畫，我們能更靠近那些不可被雙目所視、被頭腦所思的事。抽象畫可盡藝術所能，明淨地表達出『空』…我們因而看得見那察覺不到、未曾被目睹過、徹頭徹尾的無形之物」（引述自藝術家，羅亞·納斯伽著，《格哈德·里希特油畫》，多倫多，1988年，頁107）。由此可見，里希特在關於「存在」這課題的畫作，都大膽地探索人類認知的界限。而《硫》躍動的色調和真切的哲學追求，正是里希特的藝術造詣與非凡智慧的結晶。