Discussions of German painting are inevitably problematic, since painters like Georg Baselitz and Markus Lapertz can lay as much claim to a position founded in the history of art as can their critics—artists such as Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger. At any rate, each generation is faced with the same set of doubts: Is painting simply a medium of artistic expression, or can it actually engage in a debate with the history of art? It’s especially difficult to find the right criteria with which to judge Daniel Richter’s work. This Hamburg-based artist is inspired as much by mainstream popular