Performer
1952 · Crayon on black paper
19 3/8 x 25 1/2" (49.2 x 64.8 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Richard Oelze
1900–1980
Magdeburg, Germany
PaintingSurrealismFigurationConstructivism
Representation
None documented
16
Institutional Exhibitions
4
Works in Collection
9
Assets Indexed
2
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
90%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Movements
- • Surrealism
- • Figuration
- • Constructivism
Related Artists
No edges recorded
Influence Graph
No influence edges encoded yet.
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
View all exhibitions →No image
Words and Pictures
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1981
No image
Between World Wars: Drawing in Europe and America
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1976
No image
German Drawing: The Expressionists
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1974
No image
Portraits
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1973–1974
No image
Drawings from the Museum Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1966–1967
About
Why this artist matters now
Richard Oelze was a German draughtsman and painter whose meticulously detailed pencil and ink works inhabited a territory between figuration and abstraction. Working across the twentieth century, he developed a distinctive approach to mark-making that dissolved forms into densely layered patterns, creating a visual intensity that resists easy legibility. His practice engaged with both surrealist and constructivist impulses without aligning definitively with either movement.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 25d ago
Graph relationships
Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
Surrealism
Medium
Painting
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (4)
Record
Images
Related artists
Adjacent in the graph
Jérémie Marié
Shared movement
Joan Brossa
Shared movement
Martin Schongauer
Shared movement
Ewald Mataré
Shared movement
Karl Schrag
Shared movement
Ernest J. Bellocq
Shared movement
Lisa Yuskavage
Also painting
Robert Ryman
Also painting
Adolph Gottlieb
Also painting
Jasper Johns
Also painting
Neo Rauch
Also painting
Richard Artschwager
Also painting
Record
Movements and affiliations
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
Market
Auction sale history
Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction
Record