Ralf Altrieth (1966) - Übung Verstecken

Ralf Altrieth (Heilbronn, 1966).

Acrylic painting on marouflaged paper mounted on melamine wood, 'Übung Verstecken', 2014

65 x 50 cm. The work is ready to hang.

SOLD by: Recodier Art - agent, France

DOCUMENTATION :

A dated and signed certificate of authenticity is included.

DESCRIPTION :

Signed on the back 'Ralf Altrieth' with a black felt-tip pen.
Marked in front of 'RA 14' with black paint.

This painting on marouflaged paper presents a dark and moving figure, halfway between a face, an animal, and a symbolic form. The composition centers around a black mass, cut through with lines, scratches and signs, as if the image had been worked as much by addition as by inscription. The figure seems to emerge from the background, without a stable contour, in a constant tension between appearance and dissolution.

The palette is contrasted: deep, thick blacks dominate, interwoven with greens, blues, and brighter touches of yellow and red. The background, lighter and broadly brushed, creates an unstable space that intensifies the presence of the central form. The eyes, sketched rather than defined, play an essential role: they fix the gaze without ever offering a reassuring point of identification.

The work is rooted in expressive figuration, where gesture is primordial and where the image acts more as a state than as a representation. Marouflage ensures solid adhesion while preserving the raw energy of the paper and the spontaneity of the process.

This painting is part of a series of about fifty unique works.

Ralf Altrieth (born in 1966 in Heilbronn, Germany) is a German painter and musician living in France since 2006. He has been expressing himself for more than thirty years through a plural artistic practice, which includes painting, drawing, linocut, installations, sculpture and photography, as well as contemporary music and jazz.

Very early drawn to the visual arts, he takes private lessons with painter Georg Schaible at the age of 14, before joining the Nürtingen Academy of Fine Arts from 1987 to 1989. In parallel, he discovers and practices the saxophone and jazz from the age of 20.

The career of Ralf Altrieth is defined by total artistic freedom: from his early days he has claimed an autonomy of creation that is expressed through a wide diversity of media and artistic languages.

He has lived and worked in several European cities — including Berlin, Freiburg, Erlangen, Paris and Venice — before settling permanently in the south of France, where he develops his practice.

Ralf Altrieth has exhibited in numerous galleries and cultural venues in France and abroad, including the Hartmut Beck Gallery in Erlangen, MAC Paris, the Galerie Théo de Seine in Paris, Galerie N5 in Montpellier, the Château d’Assas, and other art spaces. His works are in private collections in Europe and beyond.

In addition to his visual practice, he is the co-founder of the music label Meta Records and has collaborated with many musicians, often incorporating music as a source of inspiration into his visual work.

His work is frequently described as living at the intersection of gestural expressionism, neo-expressionism, and lyrical abstraction, where line and color function as a form of writing that explores movement, spontaneity, and intuitive narration.