Daniel Richter Where to know, 2023
Oil on canvas
230 x 170 cm (90.55 x 66.93 in)
Embracing the ongoing potential for artistic evolution, Daniel Richter has developed a distinctive pictorial style in recent works that balances figurative experimentation with an interest in the materiality of paint. Large-scale works, such as Where to know (2023), depict biomorphic figures contorted in twisted poses and often entangled with pole-like structures. Figurative elements come in and out of focus against a flat backdrop in which a pseudo-horizon line is created by juxtaposing two blocks of solid colour. In Where to know, the pink and grey background is contrasted with the freer application of paint evidenced in two sequences of curved lines executed in colour gradients. The textured, blurry edges of these linear forms are echoed by the gestural swirls and scribbles of blue paint that seem to fuse with the figure, perhaps articulating the outline of a wing or feathers, and reconfiguring bodily representation through painterly expression.
