Seven-Two-Four

Richter maintained a rigorous catalogue of his painted work, assigning each canvas a sequential number. The photographic print editions he produced under these catalogue-number titles constitute a specific mode of working: the painting is documented not through faithful reproduction but through a deliberate photographic softening that transforms the original object into a new image. The blur is not a limitation of the reproduction process but a compositional decision – one that connects the photographic prints back to Richter's Photo Painting practice of the 1960s, in which blurring was used to destabilise the boundary between painting and photography.

In Seven-Two-Four, the result is a landscape-format field of warm tone – reds and pinks moving towards white at the brightest passages, cooler greys and blues appearing as accents within the warmth. No edge, brushmark or squeegee trace is sharp; the entire surface resolves into soft gradients. The image exists in a specific register between the abstract painting it records and an independent photographic work: it documents the original canvas while also being something distinct from it, with its own compositional qualities produced by the photographic process. The 2008 date indicates that this edition was made significantly after the original painting was produced, a common feature of Richter's photographic print series.