Wellness
Daniel Richter
Ludwigstrasse 7, Munich
19.03 — 23.04
2021
2021
The show of current works by Daniel Richter is built on two main pillars. It comprises a group of black and white drawings and a group of selected collage works. As the artist himself states matter of factly in the accompanying large-scale publication the initial take was to exemplify a specific tradition of montage and photo collage, namely its political propagandistic function. This tradition and its today’s branching out into sub- and pop culture was meant to be the principle of the show. Setting up a visual laboratory brings the question to the forefront, whether this artistic method is still powerful in the age of digital image manipulation and if so, still being able to deliver the right questions and ideas without being redundant. To quote the artist himself: “Als künstlerische Positionen angedacht waren John Heartfield, Hanna Höch, Josep Renau, Martha Rosler, Linder, Gee Vaucher, Albert Oehlen und Daniel Richter, der am Ende leider als einziger übrig blieb.“The group of drawings on the other hand carries a most intriguing image through its variations, that is two war invalids on crutches walking next to each other. Thus depicted on a postcard from 1916 Sweden. Daniel Richter took on the task of drawing with ink and pen for the first time since his teenager years. Bringing a world of most astonishing formalizations to light. A painting in multiple parts, a woodcut type print, and two t-shirts expand the intrinsic statement of the artist’s work into a specific formal arrangement. The main idea, the starting point of the show, the politically charged collage work becomes an installation, reversing the idea of a one man show into its own form as a collage.