Curated by Poul Erik Tøjner
This midcareer retrospective comprises forty-five oils by Daniel Richter, representing the German painter’s broad range—from his dense abstract constellations of the mid-1990s to the narrative works of the early 2000s to his reduced figure studies from last year. Typically discussed in the context of recent European history, Richter’s practice carries on the task of questioning German identity. All too relevant today, Tarifa, 2001, depicts huddled refugees—race reconfigured through Richter’s vibrant color palette—aboard a dinghy drifting out of the picture plane. Borderline, 2009, could easily be interpreted as a reference to the former partitioning of Germany: A candy-cane border post divides the muted landscape, a stand of cyan trees in the distance indicating a brighter side. Beyond politics, the artist’s practice engages in an ongoing dialogue with the history of painting and other visual sources; Richter’s work reflects both an ironic and a romantic search for meaningful painting in a world flooded with images.
