Ralf Altrieth (1966) - Too much sleep - XL

Acrylic, soft pastel and sgraffito on heavyweight paper, ivory-toned
75 x 105 cm

Signed and dated on the back by the artist
Certificate of authenticity signed by Ralf Altrieth

Images shown in situ with a mat are presentation suggestions.

DESCRIPTION:

A free, sensitive, and profoundly alive presence.

This original work on paper by Ralf Altrieth unfolds an instinctive universe where fragmented figures, floating gazes, and animal forms seem to appear and then vanish into the material. Between softness and graphic tension, the composition preserves something immediate, drawing the eye for a long time without ever being fully grasped.

Nerve-like and spontaneous lines dialog with quieter flat areas, creating a work that is at once expressive and poetic. The colors, deliberately restrained and then suddenly traversed by more vivid accents, give the paper a very particular vibration, subtle yet intensely present in an interior.

The work possesses that rare quality of pieces that one looks at not only for their subject but for the atmosphere they establish. Framed with a wide mat, it takes on an almost architectural dimension and immediately transforms the space around it.

At the boundary between free figuration, instinctive drawing, and plastic writing, this work testifies to a deeply personal approach, with no easy decorative effect. A singular, inhabited piece that naturally finds its place in contemporary interiors sensitive to living and authentic art.

CRITIQUE:

"There is a great deal of poetry in this painting, as in all of the artist's works. They are populated with narrative codes and fantastical tales. In that sense, the painterly poems of Ralf Altrieth are a pure childlike chant... But the most astonishing thing manifested in these paintings is a communicative tenderness for the states of the human soul."
— Dr. Friedhelm Häring, museum director and art historian

BIOGRAPHY:

Ralf Altrieth (Heilbronn, 1966) is a Franco-German painter and musician known for his expressive, spontaneous universe, at the boundary between figuration and abstraction.

Trained in his teens with painter Georg Schaible and then at the Nürtingen Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1980s, his work is distinguished by rare pictorial energy and a particularly sensitive language. His works today are held in numerous private collections around the world.

SHIPPING:

Tracked shipping. The work will be shipped rolled in a sturdy tube to ensure secure transport.