Haggadah – P2

Derived from Gerhard Richter’s eponymous oil on canvas from 2006, ‘Haggadah’ (2014) is characterised by tantalising and exciting passages of yellow, grey, red, green and blue. Published as a chromogenic print by HENI, ‘Haggadah’ is entrancing for its seemingly endless layers of mesmerising paint and changing sense of depth, aided by moments in which the paint is stripped and picked at.

Notably, ‘Haggadah’ was not created as part of a series, making it a unique painting. It is exemplary of Richter’s use of a squeegee, composed of a sheet of Perspex affixed to a wooden handle, to manoeuvre paint across his canvases. This tool removes personalised brushstrokes from Richter’s composition, creating instead stark and almost mechanical moments of colour which fuse into each other.

Named after the book of instructions for Passover, the connection between the artwork’s title and the final painting remains mysterious. Still, the title could offer insight into the work. ‘Haggadah’ loosely translates to ‘story’ from the word ‘tell’ and reflects the subtle oscillation of form that develops across the canvas. Fiercely emotive and evocative, Richter’s composition teases with moments of recognition before it ultimately dissolves once more into captivating abstraction.