In Gerhard Richter’s ‘Aladdin’ (2010) painting, autonomously flowing purple, yellow, blue, red and green enamel paints construct an entrancing abstract composition. On a flat surface, Richter poured the colours and watched them move, sometimes merging to create smoke-like forms as in the painting’s upper left corner, while other times maintaining their boundaries as in the purple field in its lower left. Consistent across the work is an overwhelming sense of scientific movement, practically akin to chemical reactions.