Lights! Camera! Painting!

“Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God.” — Gerhard Richter

If the above is true, you’ll be singing “Hallelujah!” after viewing the documentary Gerhard Richter Painting, a cinematic celebration of the artist’s way, as caught on camera by filmmaker Corinna Belz. Belz richly captures Gerhard, a versatile and respected German-born artist with more than fifty years of work dotting his palette, in the sensuous, physical act of painting a series of large abstract canvases — slapping on and scraping off paint with brushes and squeegees. The film, a followup to a shorter piece that Belz coaxed Gerhard into making in 2007, overlays the stunning art-making sequences with conversations and archival material, but action is the real point of her portrait, which strikes a note with artists and art-lovers alike.

“With the recent interest and success of the Clyfford Still Museum, it’s the right time to keep exploring the art world, and there’s no better film for looking into the method of a very unique man with a unique vision,” says Denver FilmCenter programmer Keith Garcia. “Watching his blank canvas transform and evolve is exciting and fresh and plugs into our own curiosities around the creative process. Never has watching paint dry been so involving and fun.”

Gerhard Richter Painting opens today at the FilmCenter, 2510 East Colfax Avenue; for information and tickets, $7.25 to $9.75, visit www.denverfilm.org or call the box office at 303-595-3456.

June 29-July 5, 2012