Daniel Richter bedroht und schuldig, 2021

The German artist Daniel Richter’s latest series of vibrant large-scale oil paintings is the next experimental step in a visual language that has evolved across his career. In bedroht und schuldig (2021), transient, shifting figures that seem to unite elements of human, ape and machine flicker in and out of view, applied with a palette knife then outlined with graphic strokes of oil crayon. As Richter explains, ‘My concern is with the surface, this flat, tangled, never-changing scheme of figure constellations, in and out’. The title of the work, which translates as ‘threatened and guilty’, as well as Richter’s bold use of contrasting colour, predominated by yellows, reds and greens, indicate this episodic interpersonal friction, but to Richter, ‘it’s more a question of systems of representation rather than portraying the body as a carnal, biological thing’.