Daniel Richter Mit elben Birnen

Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg presents a new series of paintings by German artist Daniel Richter. Created over the past year, these large-scale works navigate a space between figuration and abstraction, characterised by chaotic entanglements of fragmented bodies. Creature-like forms are depicted against jagged fields of colour in bright, contrasting tones, evoking a sense of rebellious energy and electric vibrancy.

Watch a video of the artist speaking about the exhibition

Play

Pause

Richter’s painting has been marked by a continual formal transformation since the beginning of his career. While opaque, monochrome areas of colour characterised Richter’s work of the past few years, the backgrounds of these new, intensely colourful compositions appear torn or singed. At times, the candy-coloured shapes that seem to race across the canvas are delineated by black, dense lines; at others, they seem to detach from the background or erupt across the pictorial space.

Daniel Richter

Der müde Geiger, 2025
Oil on canvas
230 × 170 cm (90.55 × 66.93 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201267

In some works, the artist leaves behind traces of his physical presence as visible fingermarks on the canvas, intensifying a heightened sense of primordial energy and unresolved conflict. ‘The dynamic in my work is mainly based on pushing and shoving, or on elements that are being confronted by each other – mingling, pushing, pulling,’ Richter explains. 

Daniel Richter

Witreid, 2025
Oil on canvas
270 × 200 cm (106.3 × 78.74 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201261

The temporal and spatial indeterminacy of scenes refuses to resolve into a coherent time, place, or even pictorial space. The works appear to depict surreal landscapes of the mind or imagination rather than representations of any external world.

Daniel Richter

the booty, 2025
Oil on canvas
270 × 200 cm (106.3 × 78.74 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201259

Colours clash or recede with intense emotional charge, the bold contrasts and abstract patterns recalling the formal vocabulary of Clyfford Still. And yet, despite the underlying violence, the works convey a touching sensuality and beauty that counterbalances their restless energy. 

Daniel Richter

Masken verloren (die Surrealisten), 2025
Oil on canvas
270 × 200 cm (106.3 × 78.74 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201262

The exhibition’s title references the opening line of Friedrich Hölderlin’s poem Half of Life, which Richter cryptically rephrases. The poem is centred around a stark contrast between idealised beauty and a world marked by emptiness. The lines, which sound almost prophetic in today’s political climate, accompanied Richter during the creation of this series. Hölderlin’s image of creaking weathervanes can be read as a symbol of the fragile, often  fractured order of our time.

Daniel Richter

Mit Elben in denselben, 2025
Oil on canvas
230 × 170 cm (90.55 × 66.93 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201268

Friedrich Hölderlin
Half of Life

With its yellow pears
And wild roses everywhere
The shore hangs into the lake,
O gracious swans,
And drunk with kisses
You dip your heads
In the sobering holy water.

Ah, where will I find
Flowers, come winter,
And where the sunshine
And shade of the earth?
Walls stand cold
And speechless, in the wind
The weathervanes creak.

Daniel Richter

Klars der Wollende, 2025
Oil on canvas
230 × 170 cm (90.55 × 66.93 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201269

The anarchic humour of his titles is typical of the artist, whose sensibility for the absurd and the drastic is also closely linked to the Hamburg music scene and punk. The city, where Richter studied under Werner Büttner from 1992 to 1996, has played a pivotal role in his life and career, serving as both a formative backdrop for his artistic development and a long-standing base from which he emerged as one of Germany’s most influential contemporary painters.

Daniel Richter

Wie es dazu kam, 2025
Oil on canvas
270 × 200 cm (106.3 × 78.74 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201263

Daniel Richter’s work is currently on view in the group exhibition Remix at Albertina Modern in Vienna (until 7 September). In December, a major retrospective will open at the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig (until February 2026). 

Daniel Richter

Paukenmächte, 2025
Oil on canvas
230 × 170 cm (90.55 × 66.93 in)

Enquire

Enquiry%20DAR%201273

Learn more about the artist  

 

Download the press release