“In recent years, my works have become brighter, lighter, more transparent,” says the German painter Ulrich Erben. “Their shades are barely perceptible, but present.” Born in 1940, Erben grew up between the natural beauty of the Lower Rhine and the enchanted buildings of Rome. Although much time has passed since those early days, the artist’s geometric abstractions use landscape—its vastness—as a point of departure. Erben’s color fields alternate between subdued works in monochrome and canvases of converging multicolor. But in all his works the overall effect is lightness. His visions are so ethereal they feel as though they could somehow spread wings and flutter off the canvas—without making a sound —E.C.