Ralf Altrieth (1966) - Petit Bois N°33

Ralf Altrieth (Heilbronn, 1966).

Painting on wood, 'Petit Bois N°33', 2011

20 x 20 cm (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', in pencil.
I marked 'RA11' with paint on the front.

This small painting on wood centers on a frontal face, built up by layers of colors and thick lines. Three eyes structure the composition: two at the level of the face, a third in the center of the forehead, like an additional point of tension that immediately shifts the reading toward a more symbolic than anecdotal register.

The strokes are deliberately emphasized, almost childish in their simplicity, yet carried by a dense, worked material. The blues, greens, ochers, and pinks interweave, sometimes revealing the wooden support, whose warmth contrasts with the liveliness of the colors.

The face seems both stable and unstable: shapes overlap, contours contradict each other, and certain areas appear still open, as if awaiting transformation. The light crown at the top of the head evokes as much a vegetal form as a mental or inner sign, reinforcing the figure's ambiguity.

In its intimate format, this work invites a close encounter. It does not seek to render a portrait, but to capture a state, an inner presence, where gaze, color, and gesture blend to give birth to a figure that is at once expressive, fragile, and intensely alive.

RALF ALTRIETH (born 1966 in Heilbronn, Germany) is a German painter and musician who has been based in France since 2006. For more than thirty years he has expressed himself through a plural artistic practice, which includes painting, drawing, linocut printmaking, 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.