Daniel Richter Exhibits at Kuntsmuseum Basel

Friday, 04 August 2006 10:32

Basel, Switzerland - The earlier paintings by the German painter Daniel Richter (born 1962) delineated a hallucinatory universe of color, that could be positioned somewhere between graffiti and unparalleled abstraction.  Some years ago the artist turned completely to figuration and the historic image.  By reintroducing a virtually forgotten form, Daniel Richter re-politicized the genre under the contemporary auspices of painting as a medium, simultaneously establishing a link to the art of the eighties.

In his most recent work, Richter entangles art history, mass media and pop culture elements in willful worlds of narrative imagery.  The Basel exhibition shows a selection of works from the last five years together with his most recent paintings.  On exhibit until 24 September, 2006.

Richter uses paint on a canvas surface to conjure up illusions of time and space.  He has a certain Pre-Raphaelite quality, reminiscent of ghostly figures witnessing the drowning of Ophelia.  Much like Doig, Richter gets to the heart of paint, capturing a magnetic vibrancy through texture, richness of color and illusion of light.  Richter designs an exuberant and luscious otherworld, made all the more believable by the invention of, and adherence to, his own rules of image-making.

The Kunstmuseum possesses the worlds largest collection of works by the Holbein family.  Further examples of Renaissance art include major pieces by such masters as Konrad Witz, Martin Schongauer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Mathias Grünewald.  Most of these early treasures originally belonged to the collection of a Basel lawyer, Basilius Amerbach.  Purchased by the city in 1661, they formed the core of the worlds first public municipal museum.

Visit The Kunstmuseum at : http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en.html