Famed Painter Posed as Parisian Street Artist
German artist Daniel Richter tested his skills against Paris' portrait artists.
PASSAU, Germany, Aug. 23, 2007 — -- Daniel Richter may not be a big name in the U.S. art world -- though he's had some exhibitions there -- but he's a big deal in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
International art dealers pay top dollar for his works; one of his paintings was recently sold by Sotheby's in New York for $825,000.
Richter is definitely one of the most successful contemporary painters in Germany and has attracted significant art world attention for his provocative work.
The artist, who lives and works in Berlin and Hamburg, recently decided to leave the privacy of his studios and try something new.
"I just wanted to try out working in a different environment, get out of my private 'protected' studio to see if I could survive in a very competitive world, see if I was good enough, or at least as good or as bad as my competitors," the artist told ABC News.
His competitors were the street portrait artists in Paris, where Richter spent a weekend working as one of them.
Disguised and equipped with the mere basics of a street artist -- two small stools, one for him and one for his model, paper and pens -- he set up outside the Centre Georges Pompidou waiting for customers who were willing to have their portraits drawn for $6.50 a piece.
"I was the cheapest out there!" Richter said. "It's a great experience that I would not want to miss, but to be under the eye of the public all the time was truly horrible. Doing a portrait is such an intimate thing and to do it under those circumstances is not easy, but the pressure is on and you learn fast."
Some of the bystanders were irritated and made nasty remarks when they saw him throwing away a draft.
"I wasn't happy with my work, so I threw it away and told them to shut up. I said, 'I'm the artist so I have the say and you shut up,'" Richter said.
His customers, completely unaware they were sitting for a famous painter, had mixed reactions when they saw the results.
A young Israeli tourist told the German newspaper Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) that he gave Richter the thumbs up and said he told him, "That's cool, you really have potential."
