Ralf Altrieth - So und so - XXL

At first glance, Ralf Altrieth’s painting seems to emerge from a free, almost instinctive gesture. But very quickly, something else asserts itself: an underlying organization, an internal logic that goes beyond mere spontaneity. For him, the matter is never decorative. It acts.

His practice sits within a constant tension between control and abandon. Imprints, pressures, superpositions: the gesture is often indirect, as if the image refuses to be entirely decided in advance. What appears is not illustrated — it is revealed. A form emerges, then transforms, then hesitates. And it is precisely in this in-between that the work gains its strength.

In this universe, the boundary between abstraction and figuration remains deliberately unstable. Possible silhouettes surface, presences are hinted at, without ever fixing. The gaze is invited, moved. Seeing becomes an active, almost physical experience.

One could speak of a pictorial language built from processes: repetition, variation, controlled accidents. But reducing this work to a method would miss the essential. For behind this apparent mechanics there is a very particular sensitivity — a kind of gentleness, sometimes even tenderness, that surfaces in the tensions of the material.

Each work functions as a field of possibilities. Nothing is imposed, everything is offered. It is a painting that does not immediately yield its answers, but opens spaces.

In Ralf Altrieth’s career, this approach occupies a singular place: it marks a moment when painting stops representing and becomes a place of appearance. A terrain where something may happen, without being totally controlled.

His works do not seek to seduce with spectacle or visible virtuosity. They settle in a different way. By their density. By their presence. And by this rare ability to transform the space in which they take place.

More than an image, each piece acts as an active surface — a space where the gaze circulates, hesitates, returns. And where, ultimately, something happens.

TECHNIQUE:
Acrylic on canvas, 2026
Thick professional-quality canvas
155 × 110 cm
Unique work, hand-painted
Excellent condition
Signed and dated on the back by the artist
Certificate of authenticity signed by the artist

CRITIQUE AND PRESS:
"In this sense, Ralf Altrieth’s pictorial poems are a pure childish chant. From the crucible of improvisation he brings forth a world intact, made of spontaneous joys and strong impulses."
— Dr Friedhelm Häring, art historian and museum director

"There is in Ralf Altrieth’s painting a generosity that has its own language, rich in imagery and color, without turning color into dogma, funny without being caricatural, joyful without idealism, energetic without being thunderous, in short a deeply human language."
— Bernard Pignero, writer

"The eye must rebound, cling, detach, it is captured by color, by the energy of the gesture, by the strange cohabitations, the musical rhythms of jazz where Ralf Altrieth also works as a saxophonist, a proponent of improvisation."
— Stéphane Cerri, journalist

SHIPPING:
The canvas is shipped rolled, carefully protected in a sturdy tube to guarantee safe transport.
The indicated dimensions correspond to the work mounted on a frame. The canvas includes extra white margins to allow easy re-tensioning. The buyer may entrust this work to their local framer.

NOTABLE EXHIBITIONS, 1993 - 2026:
MAC Paris
Galerie LATELIER, Sète
L’espace d’art Chaillioux, Fresnes
A.R.P.A.C., Castelnau-Le-Lez
Galerie Le Lieu Multiple, Montpellier
Galerie N5, Montpellier
Château d’Assas, Le Vigan
A DESSIN 4, Sète
Galerie My Art Goes Boom, Sète
Galerie La Salamandre, Nîmes
Galerie 75, Rouen
SMAC Festival, Toulon
Pop Up, Notre-Dame de la Rouvière
Galerie My Art Goes Boom, Nîmes
Espace des Arts, Le Boulou
Galerie Plurielle, Sète
Galerie U, Baiersbronn, Germany
Galerie Théo de Seine, Paris
Galerie L’Étang D’Art, Bages
Galerie Via Arte, Honfleur
Galerie 175, Dozulé
Galerie Au Quai Dock, Lisieux
Galerie Hartmut Beck, Erlangen, Germany
EWE, Freiburg, Germany