Daniel Richter and the problem of political painting today

Hughes, David (2009) Daniel Richter and the problem of political painting today. New German Critique, 36 (3). pp. 133-160.

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Abstract

Over the years, one question has irked critics of Daniel Richter's work more than any other: are his paintings political? For a German artist who began his professional career producing abstract-expressive pictures in 1995, it seemed particularly hard to maintain a left-wing stance while working in a medium that belonged historically to the internationalist conformism of the 1950s. His turn to figuration around 1999–2000, however, only compounded the problem: how dare he raise sensitive political issues—the war in the Balkans, mass unemployment, terrorist bombings, police drug busts, the plight of North Africans trying to reach Europe—without offering a coherent commentary on them? To make matters worse, Richter—for a supposed radical—has made quite a profit from his art while systematically avoiding a clear stance on what purportedly matters most to him. Focusing on three of Richter's best-known paintings—Warum ich kein Konservativer bin (2000), Eine Stadt namens Authen (2001), and Phienox (2000)—I explore the complexities of political painting in today's world. Through a consideration of Richter's neosymbolist style, his postmodern penchant for citation, the influence of the new fauves, and the legacy of socialist realism, I debunk many commonly held myths about leftist art and illustrate how intensely problematic such art has become.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	daniel richter,political art,expressionism,symbolism,new fauves,postmodernism,german art
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Political, Social and International Studies (former - to 2014)
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2014 16:10
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2023 10:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/47257
DOI:	10.1215/0094033X-2009-014

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