Page 43 - Studio International - December 1968

Louis II 1952 oil on canvas 50 x 40 in.
above left 1965-1964 two colour lithograph
29+ x 20+ in.
above Leopard Lily 1966 oil on canvas 70 x 60 in.
left The target 1959 oil on canvas 60 x 40 in.

and the Nurnberg laws (against Jewry), events which affected
Lindner's and millions of others' lives more horribly than any
previous discriminatory decrees, even during the Reformation. This
is the very city, within the walls of which some of the most beautiful
and most touching works of art are kept, where more phantasy and
inventiveness were put to the production of toys, than in any other
city of the world !
Maybe Lindner's Nurnberg origin is one reason, why art and
cruelty, man and toy enter into such a strange palpable and undi-
solvable synthesis in his work.
Yet one might consider the game factor in a wider sense. It deter-
mines not only the contents of his paintings but their form as well.
He places the hoopgirl in NO, who sits so provocatively in the
letter 0, and the motorbike girl in Ice inside of facets of the hardest
`hard edge', playfully he mixes lettering and illustration, super real-
ism and well calculated abstraction. He joins German matter-of-
factness with the American sense of social criticism and visual sophis-
tication. He toys with different styles, uses them, changes them,
applies them wherever and however he wants to. He even invents
them anew, if necessary, if it enhances his central theme.
Richard Lindner has a passion for playing and his favourite game
is painting. He is interested in every possible aspect of such a game.
Man and the universe fascinate him; he gambles for the highest poss-
ible stake : himself.
255