After a longer residence on Lake Garda, he stayed in Paris in the years from 1932 to 1936 and became acquainted with André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard and Max Ernst.
His most important work may well be Die Erwartung (The Expectation, 1935/1936), which depicts a group of people staring into an empty landscape with their backs to the observer.
His works are typified by a secretive representation of landscape and figural compositions, with rendition of details in the manner of the old masters.
Oelze is the winner of the Max-Beckmann-Preis, received the Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Preis of the city of Hagen, the Großen Kunstpreis (Great Art Prize) of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, the Lichtwark-Preis of the city of Hamburg and was awarded the Niedersachsenpreis in the category of culture in 1980.
The city of Magdeburg named a street for Oelze, the Oelzeweg, and there is a Richard-Oelze-Ring in Worpswede.