Techniques and Materials in Abstract Painting ||Gerhard Richter,
German, born 1932; January, 1989; oil on canvas; installed: 126
in. x 13 ft. 1 1/2 in. (320 x 400 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum,
Funds given by Mr. and Mrs. James E. Schneithorst, Mrs. Henry L.
Freund, and the Henry L. and Natalie Edison Freund Charitable
Trust; and Alice P. Francis, by exchange 28:1990a,b © Gerhard
Richter The first truly abstract paintings were developed by
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1912 and 1914.
Called Cubism, it was a new way of merging objects and figures
into geometric planes. Picasso and Braque developed new methods,
introducing real elements such as newspapers into their
paintings by sticking them directly onto the surface. This
became known as ‘Collage’ and is now a recognised artistic
process. Inspired by Cubism, abstract artists in Europe and
especially the United States developed experimental approaches
to techniques and materials. Although these artists were very
conscious of their place in hi