Betty

Gerhard Richter's painting is a combination of realism and colour tests. His 'squeegee' technique distorts and smudges his images, as well as making the colours themselves his subject.

I encountered Richter's Betty at a Tate exhibition about two years ago and I still cannot forget the impression it left on me.
The feeling that the girl in the picture would turn her head and look at me made me very still. I held my breath as I wondered who I was - as the viewer - looking at this person. What was the artist's relationship to this girl? Such a sense of softness; each strand of hair painted as if the artist's hand was caressing her head.



Betty, 1988