Ralf Altrieth - Too much sleep - XL

Acrylic and soft pastel on heavy paper, ivory tone
75 x 105 cm

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

Images showing the artwork with a matte framing pass-partout are presentation suggestions.

DESCRIPTION:

A free, sensitive, and deeply living presence.

This original work on paper by Ralf Altrieth unfolds an instinctive universe where fragmented figures, drifting gazes, and animal shapes seem to appear and then disappear into the material. Between gentleness and graphic tension, the composition retains something immediate, drawing the eye for a long time without ever letting it be fully grasped.

The direct, spontaneous lines dialogue with quieter flat areas, creating a work that is both expressive and poetic. The colors, deliberately restrained and then suddenly pierced by livelier accents, give the paper a very particular vibration, subtle yet intensely present in an interior space.

The piece possesses that rare quality of works that you do not look at only for their subject, but for the atmosphere they establish. Framed with a wide matte, it takes on an almost architectural dimension and immediately transforms the surrounding space.

At the border between free figuration, instinctive drawing, and plastic writing, this work testifies to a deeply personal approach, without easy decorative effect. A singular, inhabited piece that naturally finds its place in contemporary interiors sensitive to living, authentic art.

CRITIQUE:

"There is a lot of poetry in this painting, as in all the artist’s works. They are inhabited by narrative codes and fantastical tales. In this sense, Ralf Altrieth’s pictorial poems are a pure childish chant... But the most astonishing thing that manifests in these paintings is a communicative tenderness for the states of mind of the human being."
— Dr. Friedhelm Häring, museum director and art historian

"His gesture- and color-writing describes a world open to new voices and to experiments never attempted. His canvases and works on paper show that painting remains a major expression of the contemporary scene."
— Laurent Puech, art historian and curator

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, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nürtingen in the late 1980s, his work is distinguished by an uncommon pictorial energy and a particularly sensitive language. His works are now represented in numerous private collections around the world.

SHIPPING:

The artwork will be shipped rolled in a sturdy tube to ensure secure transport. It is entrusted to an express carrier offering home delivery, with full tracking and signature on delivery, to guarantee the best protection of the work until it is handed over in person.