“Strictly speaking, all of Richter’s interventions are non-figurative. They all resemble an abstract painting that finds its home inside the photo’s rectangle. The painted gestures, however, generate a host of meaningful associations that play with or against the image that lies beneath.” Siri Hustvedt

In 1989 Gerhard Richter began his overpainted photographs series as a means of exploring the tension between painting and photography. This image, taken in April of that year, is one of the earliest prints from this body of work. With the heavy application of paint applied to a photograph of snow-topped mountains, Richter immediately disrupts the depth of field and brings a heightened awareness to the surface quality of the photograph and paint, alike.