m|kay (on/off)
a spectacle of chance
Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves - most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But the “Richter-Fenster” in Germany’s Colgone Cathedral evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine. Contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter designed the 65-foot-tall work to replace the original, destroyed by bombs in World War II. As a starting point, he used his own 1974 painting 4096 Colors. To create that piece Richter devised a mathematical formula to systematically mix permutations of the three primary colors and gray.The Cologne window is made of 11,500 four-inch " pixels" cut from original antique glass in a total of 72 colors. Instead of representing something finite or tangible, the Richter-Fenster opens up myriad possible interpretations and alerts us to the act of seeing.
a spectacle of chance
Blood-spurting martyrs, biblical parables, ascendant doves - most church windows feature the same preachy images that have awed parishioners for centuries. But the “Richter-Fenster” in Germany’s Colgone Cathedral evokes technology and science, not religion and the divine. Contemporary German artist Gerhard Richter designed the 65-foot-tall work to replace the original, destroyed by bombs in World War II. As a starting point, he used his own 1974 painting 4096 Colors. To create that piece Richter devised a mathematical formula to systematically mix permutations of the three primary colors and gray.The Cologne window is made of 11,500 four-inch " pixels" cut from original antique glass in a total of 72 colors. Instead of representing something finite or tangible, the Richter-Fenster opens up myriad possible interpretations and alerts us to the act of seeing.