After 2000, Richter made a number of works that dealt with scientific phenomena, in particular, with aspects of reality that can’t be seen by the naked eye. This work, which translates as ‘Abstract Painting (Skin)’, deals with the visual patterns that sound vibrations create when brought into proximity to the surface of milk (skin). The actual image derives from experiments carried out in 2000 by the German artist, Carsten Nicolai (born 1965). The repeated pattern of forms, albeit indistinct and out of focus in some areas, is also found in Richter’s later paintings and prints about earth elements, such as silicate and strontium.