Ralf Altrieth - Le grand calme I - 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, matter is never decorative. It acts.

His practice is defined by a constant tension between control and abandon. Superpositions, recurrences, tracings and accumulations: several pictorial writings meet and confront one another. Large colored masses sit alongside sinuous lines, signs, biomorphic forms and uncertain silhouettes. The gesture is free, but never entirely left to chance. The image appears to be built, undone, and reassembled as painting progresses.

What appears is not illustrated: it erupts. A form takes shape, then transforms, then escapes precise identification. In this universe, the boundary between abstraction and figuration remains intentionally unstable. Possible presences surface, characters seem to form, creatures and signs mingle with the layers of material without ever being fully grasped.

The gaze is thus solicited, constantly set in motion. It moves among the different levels of the composition, lingers on an apparition, follows a line, discovers a new association. Seeing becomes an active, almost physical, experience.

One could speak of a pictorial language built from processes: repetition, variation, superposition and controlled accidents. Yet reducing this work to a method would miss the essential. For behind this visual profusion lies a singular sensitivity, at once organic, playful, and sometimes disturbing. The shapes seem animated by a life of their own, as if something continually sought to emerge from the material.

In Ralf Altrieth’s career, this approach occupies a singular place: it marks a moment when painting becomes less a means of representing the world than a site of appearance and transformation. A terrain where forms may come into being, meet, and vanish without being entirely subjected to a prior intention.

Through its monumental dimensions, this painting develops a presence beyond that of a simple image. It unfolds a true visual field, dense and vibrant, that transforms the perception of the space in which it is placed. From a distance, its chromatic power and overall composition stand out; up close, a multitude of details, gestures, and correspondences reveal themselves.

More than an image, the work acts as an active surface: a buzzing space where different forms of expression cross, where the gaze moves, hesitates and returns. A painting that does not immediately yield its answers, but whose richness continues to unfold over time.

TECHNIQUE:
Oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas, Sennelier HC10 fixative
Thick professional-quality canvas
Format 150 × 190 cm
Unique work, hand-painted
Excellent condition
Signed and dated on the back by the artist
Certificate of authenticity signed by Ralf Altrieth

CRITIQUE ET PRESSE:
"In this sense, Ralf Altrieth’s painter-poems are a pure childish chant. From the furnace of improvisation, he conjures a pristine world made of spontaneous joys and strong impulses."
— Dr Friedhelm Häring, art historian and museum director

"His writing by gesture and color describes a world open to new voices and experiences never attempted before. The canvases and works on paper by Ralf Altrieth demonstrate 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, renowned for his expressive and spontaneous universe, at the border between figuration and abstraction. Trained in his teens with painter Georg Schaible, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nürtingen, his work is distinguished by rare pictorial energy and a particularly sensitive language. His works are today in numerous private collections worldwide.

MARGES:
The indicated dimensions correspond to the work mounted on a frame. The canvas includes white margins that will allow it to be stapled to a frame. The tensioning can easily be carried out by your local framer.

EXPÉDITION:
The canvas is shipped rolled in a reinforced tube, specially designed to ensure maximum protection during transport. The work is entrusted to an express carrier guaranteeing home delivery, with full tracking and signature required, to ensure the best protection of the work until it is handed over to the recipient.

Note: The images showing the work in situ are presentation suggestions created with AI based on photos of the actual work. Photos of the real object are definitive (close-ups, full work, back and profile photos). Tones may vary slightly depending on your screen’s color profile.

EXPOSITIONS notables:
MAC Paris
A.R.P.A.C., Castelnau-Le-Lez
Galerie N5, Montpellier
Château d’Assas, Le Vigan
A DESSIN 4, Sète
SMAC Festival, Toulon
Galerie U, Baiersbronn, Germany
Galerie Théo de Seine, Paris
Galerie Via Arte, Honfleur
Galerie Hartmut Beck, Erlangen, Germany
EWE, Freiburg, Germany