Daniel Richter: Lonely Old Slogans
Since the 1990s, Daniel Richter has shaped painting in Germany as few others have done. The question of how painting can react to the political, social and media realities of today serves as a starting point for Richter’s artistic work. Through the intersection of art historical, mass media and popular culture clichés, Richter creates idiosyncratic worlds and images of unstable realities.
Lonely Old Slogans traces Richter’s earliest, colour-intensive abstract improvisations through to his figurative works, described by the artist as a new form of history painting. Since 2000, he has painted narrative scenes filled with figures, often inspired by reproductions from newspapers or history books. These works convey the complex atmosphere of a moment, rather than depicting historical events or celebrating political utopias, foregrounding the contradictions and complexities of our times.
Daniel Richter (b.1962, Eutin, Germany) is based in Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna. From 2004–6 he was professor of painting at UdK Berlin. Since 2006, Richter has held a professorship at Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna. Richter’s works are held by museums including the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Kunsthalle zu Kiel in Germany. He has had solo exhibitions at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2015), kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2011), Museum der Moderne: Rupertinum, Salzburg (2010), Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Klosterneuberg, Austria (2009), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2007), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2007), Denver Art Museum, Colorado (2007), and Kunstmuseum Basel – Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland (2006). He has also participated in Kids at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2012), and Uwe Lausen, Daniel Richter at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2006).
Supported by the Daniel Richter Exhibition Circle, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Regen Projects and Vitsoe
Organised by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, in collaboration with 21er Haus, Vienna, and Camden Arts Centre, London
