twilight of the superheroes

Looking at a painting takes a certain composure, a certain resolve, but when you really do look at one it can be like a door swinging open, a sensation, however brief, of vaulting freedom. It's as if, for a moment, you were a different person, with different eyes and different capacities and a different history—a sensation, really, that's a lot like hope. From "The Flaw in the Design," by Deborah Eisenberg.

Painting: Seascape (Contrejour), 1969 by Gerhard Richter.