Creating a convincing sense of the third dimension in painting is one of the medium's enduring challenges. There are many ways to render depth and recession — through perspective, tonal gradation, atmospheric colour — but some painters have pursued a more direct solution: the physical projection of paint beyond the picture plane into actual space. Van Gogh, Willem de Kooning, Frank Auerbach, and Anselm Kiefer are all painters known for the palpable, tactile presence of their