This Painting Broke A Record? Really?
Gerhard Richter is possibly the greatest painter of our time, but the giant smear that is ‘Abstract Painting (809-4),’ which set a new ‘living-artist’ auction record at $34.2 million, could be mistaken for splashy décor, says Blake Gopnik. And what’s wrong with splashy decor? A lot of Picasso and Matisse and Renoir and even Bacon would look pretty on one’s living-room wall.
