Ralf Altrieth (1966) - Non objet sur objet sans couleur 4

Ralf Altrieth (Heilbronn, 1966).

Mixed media on melamine-faced wood, 'No object on object without color 4', 2017

30 x 24 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', with a black marker.
Engraved 'RA17' on the front, in the paint.

This small painting on wood stands out against a dark, almost matte background, whose depth emphasizes a clear, compact form, painted like an island. Inside this silhouette, engraved or drawn lines come to structure the space: hybrid figures, fragments of bodies, wings or faces overlap without any evident hierarchy. The whole evokes a condensed scene, as if contained within a single breath.

The color, intentionally restrained, plays an essential role here. The slightly bluish white is not smooth: one perceives the material, the reworkings, the irregularities of the gesture. The dark lines, sometimes angular, sometimes more fluid, trace a web of internal tensions. The figures seem at once interwoven and independent, as if each one were trying to exist while being caught in a larger whole.

With its intimate format and restrained color palette, this work invites a slow, attentive reading. The contrast between the light mass and the dark background reinforces this impression of a silent emergence, giving the painting a dimension that is at once meditative and mysterious.

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.