Daniel Richter

Les 7 Samourais

, 2024

Material

2-color lithograph on Rives paper
Production Method

Graduated price: from the 11th copy sold, the work costs €1,800
Edition Size

23
Measurement

ca. 50 x 65 cm
Edition 23 + 7 AP
Signed, numbered and dated on the front
Details about the frame

Handmade titanium white waxed maple wooden frame, including 10mm spacer bar, external dimensions approx. 72.0 x 55.5 cm, the work is mounted in a raised position. Including museum glass and hanging on the back

The new and affordable way to buy contemporary art

Strictly limited and signed art editions Limited stock From emerging talents to today’s most sought-after artists

Easy and free sign-up to shop our weekly deals

About the artwork

Wild and daring is Kikuchiyo. Daniel Richter's edition “Les 7 Samourais” leaves no doubt about this. Toshiro Mifune rigorously embodied the swordsman who jumps out at us here in Akira Kurosawa's historical drama of the same name. The lithograph is based on a film still of the action hero. The color gradient, ranging from sunny yellow to orange to bright red, underlines its irrepressible energy. Daniel Richter himself, who was part of the Hamburg punk and squatter scene in the 1980s, was also said to be somewhat anarchic. “That’s how I feel when I paint,” he says about the samurai motif in his Cinema Edition. Even though he is now one of the most successful German painters, the rebel in him seems lively and lively.

What makes “Les 7 Samourais” your favorite film or why did you choose it as part of the Cinema Edition?

Of course it is only one of 100 favorite films, but as an action film, myth-buster, social drama and especially in terms of the precision of the images, it will forever be in the top ten.

Is there a reason why you chose the French title on the lithograph?

Sounds better.

Why did you choose this particular scene/still with Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo – and where did you find it? It definitely shows his character very well.

That's how I feel when I paint, that's why.

What role do films play? Does this film perhaps also serve as a source of inspiration for your pictures?

Some film stills were actually subcutaneously incorporated into the painting from time to time, but more in the sense of creating a mood.

About the Artist

Daniel Richter is definitely not a yes man. Whether it was the New York Gallery David Zwirner or the University of the Arts – when he felt restricted, the artist also turned his back on guarantees of success. Nevertheless, he is one of the most internationally important – and most expensive – German contemporary artists. Richter associates stagnation with weariness. He continually explores the possibilities of painting and how it relates to reality: initially abstract, later figurative and today somewhere in between. How his mostly monumental, colorful images are created can also be seen in Pepe Danquart's documentary “Daniel Richter” from 2023. Art history and current events meet pop aesthetics in Richter's seemingly surreal worlds. Works from 25 years were shown in a major retrospective at the Tübingen Kunsthalle in the same year. Daniel Richter is represented in numerous art collections of renowned museums worldwide, including the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, the Center Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Latest Exhibitions (Selection)

In the Penzberg Museum in 2023/24 there were exhibitions under the title “Magic + Cool. Painting at the turn of the millennium” works from the Campendonk collection can be seen alongside Daniel Richter, including Philip Guston, André Butzer, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Günther Förg, Mike Kelley, Sylvie Fleury and Huma Bhabha.
In 2023, the Kunsthalle Tübingen showed works by Daniel Richter in a large, retrospective show, created in close collaboration with the artist.
“Daniel Richter: Stupor” was the name of Daniel Richter’s solo exhibition in the London branch of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac – which can be seen online here.