The Unblinking Blur

Now and then an amazing museum show comes by. You know the name, the work has been around for some time, so how come you didn't grasp before how good the artist is, and how wide the work's scope? That's how it is with the retrospective of the German painter Gerhard Richter, beautifully organized by curator Robert Storr for New York City's Museum of Modern Art. (It ends its run in New York this week and opens in Chicago on June 22, before traveling on to San Francisco and Washington.)

It has to be said right off...