This orb exemplifies Gerhard Richter’s inquiry into the way our vision and understanding (of art and the world) operates, and the way they can be affected by the visual information put before us. This perfect polished steel sphere mirrors space, yet distorts the world it reflects. In the highly reflective globe, space is turned inside out rather than receding into a single vanishing point.

Adapted from

Charles Wylie, Celebrating Sculpture: Modern and Contemporary Works from Dallas Collections, 2003.

• The DMA is the only public or private collection to house Richter's complete work in editions from 1965 to the present.