Turquoise can present the painter with a small problem… where exactly does it belong on the palette? Est-il bleu ? Il contient trop de vert. Est-il vert ? Quelque chose en lui reste obstinément bleu. Dans un cercle chromatique, on peut évidemment lui assigner une position entre les deux et considérer l’affaire réglée. Mais devant une toile, ce classement devient beaucoup moins intéressant. Le turquoise est précisément fascinant parce qu’il occupe cette zone instable où notre perception hésite.

Raw umber is usually not the first color students reach for. On the palette, it can seem secondary, matte, subdued, without any obvious brilliance. It rarely draws attention to itself. And yet, its role is often decisive.

On the occasion of the retrospective devoted to him at the Fondation Vuitton, one thing becomes clear: looking at a work by Gerhard Richter is never a comfortable experience. At first, we think we recognize something. A photograph. A portrait. A landscape. Then something resists. The image does not fully give itself up. It confirms nothing. It stands there, slightly unstable, as if refusing to settle. That precise point is where Richter’s work begins.