Stuckbildhauer und Restaurator Richter - Kufstein

Artistic Monument Preservation - Giving Historical Authentic Splendor with Old Techniques and Materials

Kufstein's Bernd Richter enjoys surrounding himself with old things. Ceramic figures, stucco marble altars, chapels, and buildings from the 18th century and earlier are his specialty. Where the ravages of time show, he meticulously repairs, refreshes, or restores with great love and patience.

Bernd Richter is an artist. Out of passion and dedication, he successfully participated in drawing competitions as a child. Art was his medium, a means of expression that he still utilizes today. He casts meter-high figures, participates in exhibitions, and paints. For this, he uses traditional pigments, which he mixes with oil, egg white, or animal glue, just like the great masters of the past. Bernd Richter chose the HTL for Arts and Crafts, Graphics, and Painting as the basis for his education. However, he felt constrained by the confines of the school. So, he learned from the Kufstein master painters Alois Prinz and Oskar Haas and became a Lüftl painter, gilder, and sign painter. He acquired the craft of plaster sculpting from the sculptor couple Herlinde and Claudius Molling in Innsbruck. These diverse training experiences helped Bernd Richter express himself artistically - even if the artistic demands often take a back seat.

Two Souls in One Person
To add curtains, skies, and fingers is a question of skill. However, to enhance the face of a saint in a fresco of a chapel requires personality. Bernd Richter must overcome the artist within him and become a copier of the original painter. "I would really like to insert a wristwatch or a pair of sunglasses," he says with a mischievous grin, "but you can't do that." The Kufstein native knows his limits as a restorer registered with the Austrian Federal Monuments Office. This registration is a special quality indicator, reflecting the high quality of his work and the originality of the materials used. Instead of styrofoam, the artist uses pieces of coal for the restoration of an altar, for example. Just like before. The same applies to the colors: "The pigments for the natural colors are still made from earth and sand." He mixes them with pear glue from animal bones, linseed oil, resins, or egg white.

Courage & Technique
Bernd Richter, along with a colleague, is one of the few who still masters the stucco marble technique. A method that was often used for altar design. "Since this technique requires ten work steps and the result is only visible at the end, few want to engage with it," Bernd Richter explains. The right proportions of the individual colors must be kneaded, applied, hardened, plastered, and then polished. And all this has to be done within a certain time frame. In Germany, there is another artist who masters this technique. Each of them has their special recipe. Like a good cook who reveals the ingredients but keeps the essential details and techniques secret.

Teamwork for Success
When the Kufstein resident takes a break from restoring buildings between November and February, as nothing dries and fingers become stiff, he uses the time in his studio. There he paints, casts figures, and immerses himself in old painting techniques. "Restoring furniture, ceramics, and figures is a second leg I work on in a team with wood specialists," teamwork with other craftsmen is important to him. Sometimes he receives supplies in banana boxes, which a few months later leave his home as figures. Currently, he often has commissions to design furniture in shabby chic.

In Kufstein, Bernd Richter has restored the listed house at Südtiroler Platz and the Thierberg Chapel, for example. However, such projects are rarely so close to home, which is why he travels a lot, only to return to his hometown Kufstein again.

Opening hours by appointment!