Lot 368 | "Das Recht"

RICHTER, DANIEL
1962 Eutin

Title: "Das Recht".
Date: 2001.
Technique: Oil and lacquer on canvas.
Measurement: 256 x 370cm.
Notation: Signed and dated verso: Daniel Richter 2001. Here additionally titled. With work no. inscribed on canvas overlap: DR 122.


Provenance:
- Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (stamp and label)

Exhibitions:
- K 21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2002/2003 (label)
- Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel 2006 (label)
- Museum Folkwang, Essen 2007
- La Maison Rouge, Paris 2011/2012
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek 2016/2017
- Belvedere 21, Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Vienna 2017
- Camden Arts Center, London 2017

Literature:
- Heynen, Julian (ed.): Daniel Richter - Grünspan, Bielefeld 2002, cat. no. 16, p. 114, ill. p. 64f.
- Kaiser, Philipp (ed.): Daniel Richter - Huntergrund, Ostfilder 2006, p. 224, ill. VII
- Eskildsen, Ute/Olbricht, Thomas: Rockers island - Olbricht collection, Göttingen 2007, p. 275, ill. p. 67
- Wolfgang Schopmann: Mémoires de futur - La collection Olbricht, Lyon 2011, ill. p. 129
- Holm, Michael Juul (ed.): Daniel Richter - Lonely old slogan, Humlebaek 2016, p. 78, ill. p. 44f.

Daniel Richter is one of the most relevant contemporary artists in Germany. "Das Recht" is one of the early works from Richter's second creative period. In the first phase of his work he painted predominantly abstract, but around the turn of the millennium his subjects became increasingly figurative. This work created in 2001 provides an excellent insight into this development. Influenced by abstract painting, Richter does not shy away from large formats, even with his figurative motifs.
The raw violence that Richter captures on canvas in his work "Das Recht" shocks the viewer. With its mouth and eyes wide open, a horse lies prone on its back in a forest, its hoof raised over its head in a desperate defensive posture. Meanwhile two men are maltreating the horse with truncheons. One of them has twisted his face to a diabolic grin. Empty cardboard boxes framing the scene create an almost surreal atmosphere, as a justification for their presence is not evident at first glance.
In this context, the title "Das Recht", in English "The Right" or "The Law" resembles a perversion, since at first glance an obvious injustice is taking place. The brute force and the partly openly displayed joy with which this is exercised against a supposedly innocent animal is a provocation to the viewer. But of course, things are not as obvious as they first seem. Like in a detective game, Daniel Richter places cryptic clues in the picture and lays a trail that invites the viewer to follow it into the deeper levels of interpretation of the work. The trail begins with the stacked boxes, which seem to be made for storing files. Files accumulate especially in bureaucratic systems and ultimately Richter hints at what the curator Axel Köhne explained at an exhibition in 2017 at the Belvedere in Vienna, where the present work was also shown: the horse symbolises the decline of National Socialism.
Richter's reasons for presenting National Socialism as a horse in this work are complex. The horse is, especially in the Western pictorial tradition, a symbol of secular power. Richter depicts the horse in such fear and panic that it has turned on its back. In this position it is impossible for the horse to carry the ruler, of whom only the empty file boxes bear witness, on his back. The horse and the file boxes are masterfully put in relation to each other by Richter. Thus the horse symbolises the support of the secular ruler in Western pictorial tradition, while the file boxes, especially in National Socialism, play a very similar role. With his work, Richter not only ties in with existing forms of representation in art history, but also creates his own modern visual language that the viewer can comprehend.
With his sharp and unsparing works, Richter not only negotiates questions within painting, but also offers a starting point for the discussion of political and social issues.