People are the principal concern in the oeuvre of Richild Holt. Her sensitive, honest (self-) portraits are characterized by their combination of realistic precision with her figures and an expressive style.

The faces and bodies are presented with a strong use of chiaroscuro and contrasting colors. The figures are depicted in front of a reduced and strongly abstract background. These portraits are distinguished by their emotional intensity, tense dynamics, and great intimacy.

The painting process is accompanied by intense interaction between the artist and her subject, an exchange over the course of which an image comes into being in which the personality of her subject is captured and displayed on the canvas. Richild Holt describes these joint portrait sessions as “the most intense conversation imaginable.” (interview DKFZ)

Her nudes are sensitive portraits in which Richild Holt achieves authenticity rather than some kind of idealized portrayal. Following in the tradition of portrait painting since the High Renaissance and having similar aspirations, Richild Holt’s oeuvre captures both her subjects’ appearance and their personalities. In these images, the viewer encounters an intense physicality and vulnerability. The directness of physical presence reveals the body to be both a vehicle for and the visible expression of experiences, emotions and social connotations, of identity. The outsides and insides of the person portrayed appear equally bright just as they do during the blue hour, the period of twilight in the evening with its melancholy atmosphere.

The paintings and drawings of Richild Holt (born in 1941, Einöde near Villach), are always representational. In them she creates highly expressive portraits, still lifes and landscapes. Following training and employment in commercial advertising, she studied at the New School for Social Research in New York with a focus on figure drawing from 1968-9. It was not until 1981 that, having had three children, she was able to continue her studies at Kunstakademie Stuttgart. The first comprehensive solo show of her work took place at the Mussavi Arts Center in New York in 1987. It was followed by numerous national and international exhibitions. Her oeuvre is to be found in both public and private collections, amongst them frauen museum wiesbaden, the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C and at Universität Stuttgart. Her cycle of work “Metamorphose” features self-portraits dating from between 1986 and 1988. Its pictures represent her way of addressing the subject of her breast cancer and her subsequent mastectomy. The cycle is housed at the DKFZ (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, German Cancer Research Center) in Heidelberg.

Fig.: © Richild Holt and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025, Courtesy: Richild Holt

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