Daniel Richter

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Daniel Richter (born 1962, Germany) is an artist based in Berlin and Hamburg.

Richter attended Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Hamburg from 1991-1995.

Richter’s work has appeared in many exhibitions such as “Unheimlich” at Stadtische Galerie Delmenhorst[1] in Berlin, “17 Jahre Nasenbluten” at Contemporary Fine Arts[2] in Berlin and “The Morning After” at David Zwirner[3] in New York. He has shown internationally at museums and galleries including the Irish Museum of Modern Art[4] in Dublin, Museum Morsbroich[5] in Germany and Victoria Miro Gallery [6] in London. He is represented by Contemporary Fine Arts[7] in Berlin and David Zwirner[8] in New York.

Daniel Richter's paintings are elaborate in their deconstruction and recodification of art history. Drawing a wide range of reference from Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, James Ensor, to Jorg Immendorff and Peter Doig, Richter offers a revisionist position for the crisis of painting in the 21st century.

Richter's work is often read with political motive. Working in the genre of epic historical painting, his images are fraught with a painterly anxiety. His work is infused with an apocalyptic energy, reflective of media induced paranoia. Beneath his highly seductive surfaces lies the portent of instability, violence, alienation and ideological subversion of a contemporary world in constant flux.

Taking his subjects from pictures found in newspapers, comics, album and book covers, Richter repositions contemporary media imagery in the form of theatrical tableaux that are fantastical and timeless. His nightmarish scenes are both terrifying and beautiful: rebellious mobs attacking the Berlin wall are staged with medieval religious zeal; gatherings of vagabonds glow with paranormal threat. Laden with the weight of implied history, Richter's scenes extend beyond emblematic reading; their narratives take on the qualities of magical realism, extending a shiver of supernatural barbarism to depictions of current affairs.

Richter's canvases are imbued with an alchemic affinity for paint. Copious techniques and applications deceptively flaunt the process of making, yet remain elusive in their overwhelming complexity. Richter handles paint with an unwieldy passion: every colour in his controlled chaos retains its magnetic purity, he creates depth that seems to grow, like an organic force, from within the canvas. Richter's paintings radiate with their own internal light, bringing his dreamy scenes of contemporary fable to life with enduring authority.

[edit] External Links

• Daniel Richter at Contemporary Fine Art, Berlin
• Daniel Richter – Painting – Saatchi Gallery
• Daniel Richter at David Zwirner
• http://artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/2048
• Daniel Richter at the Museum of Contemporary Art Basel, Switzerland. Documentary video at Vernissage TV.