Flow – P16

Of the captivating facsimiles produced after Gerhard Richter’s acclaimed ‘Flow’ series paintings from
2013 is ‘Flow (P16)’ (2016). The painting was produced by pouring enamel paints in shades of blue,
black, pink, green, red and yellow onto a flat surface and allowing them to merge and flow. Richter
temporarily held off interference and allowed the paints to construct compositions, such as the waves of
colour in the work’s upper left corner and the mountain‐like peaks at its centre.

Eventually, Richter placed a sheet of glass over the surface, preserving, like a photograph, a snapshot of
a moment of time. The textures created by the various interactions is rendered flat by the glass, placing
a barrier between the painted surface and the viewer, further abstracting the work by denying its
tangibility.

This effect of the hardened surface is imitated in ‘Flow (P16)’, a high‐quality Diasc‐mounted
chromogenic print on aluminium which is inherently distanced from the original painting. The facsimile
maintains the integrity of the original, brilliantly capturing its frozen painterly sensibility. Effectively,
Richter’s remarkable ‘Flow (P16)’, a work that reverses the logic of his photo paintings to render a
composition further abstract, is an artwork in its own right.