Paintings by Johannes Daniel do not need long explanatory comments: their sense lies in the painting itself, relaxed and confidently mastered, combining several principles (figurative imaging, expressive gesture, typography) within a single image, without the whole losing its unity. By combining references to reality with abstract gestic shapes reminiscent of early Rauschenberg, i.e. that period of Art History when, with the background of abstract art or expressionism and in opposition to it, pop art began to take shape and everydayness entered art in the form of collaged ads and posters, journal photographs or found objects. Daniel's collages consistently take place in the medium of painting, but even for him, an image is not a copy of reality, but an areal field, in which the fragments of pop culture references and vague abstract shapes are freely layered over one another. At the same time, Daniel subordinates everything to an aesthetic message and its autonomous rules. (mf)