FAZ-Übermalung (FAZ Overpainted)
Signed Print

Ever since Richter started to experiment with the medium of photography, the practice of overpainting has been key to his works. In such artworks as Firenze and Kassel, the artist covers photographs with vibrant swirls of colours, applying the paint directly to the photographic surface. In FAZ-Übermalung, instead of a photograph, it is a page of an old newspaper that has been covered with richly coloured layers of paint.

The newspaper article is only dimly visible as the blotches of grey paint sprawl across almost the entire surface of the print. Layers of orange and red paint appear underneath the dominant grey surface, bearing traces of linear strokes that remind one of Richter’s signature squeegee technique. A curious quality of the amalgamation of colours is the difference in the texture and intensity of each layer of paint. Richter’s interest here lies in the materiality and physical experience of the artwork. The artist commented in the context of overpainting: “Painting always has reality: you can touch the paint; it has presence; but it always yields a picture”.