‘Painting is a form of thinking.’
— Gerhard Richter

Ema (Nude on a staircase) pulls the reader into the mind of Ema, the young woman descending the staircase in Gerhard Richter’s 1966 painting, Ema. Ema is a young artist who wants to discover what her greatest form of creativity is. She embarks on a journey of awakening, a quest for mastery that brings her into dialogue with her teachers and with her great mentors, the artists Gerhard Richter, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage. Ema explores her field, finds her own voice, considers the world and eventually becomes a real master herself. Each new stage in the story is linked to specific works of art, such as paintings by Richter and compositions by Cage, which serve as catalysts for Ema’s ideas. Join Ema as she travels through this modern fairy tale and contemplate Richter’s Ema as a teaching object.