Claus Bertermann - Rien ne va Plus

Artist: Claus Bertermann

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.bertermann.art

Claus Bertermann is an internationally established contemporary artist whose market profile is backed by international market authority and exceptional secondary market results. Known for his powerful, large-format abstract works, Bertermann has consistently commanded high-tier prices at the world's most prestigious auction houses. His top realized prices include €18,900 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Retro Zen), €15,240 at S. o. t. h. e. b. y´s Cologne (F5TP#CB), and €15,120 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Whispershade). With additional successful sales at V. a. n. H. a. m, A. r. t. c. u. r. i. a., T. a. j. a. n, and D. o. r. o. t. h. e. u. m, Bertermann's work is a proven asset for serious collectors worldwide.

Rien ne va Plus

With a Master's degree in Architecture (TU Munich), Bertermann originally gained global recognition for his "architectural strata" technique—layering and scraping oil paint to build spatial depth. In his figurative work he reverses that discipline: broad fields of acrylic are laid down fast and loose, and the figures are then drawn straight over the bright, still-wet ground in white oil stick—built forward, not scraped back. "Rien ne va Plus" turns that method on a subject the artist witnessed first-hand: the exact half-second in which a roulette table holds its breath.

International Artistic Footprint

With more than 1,000 large format works in private and institutional collections across the globe—including a monumental triptych at his alma mater, the Technical University of Munich—Bertermann continues to bridge the gap between rigorous structure and intuitive freedom. This offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire a monumental, three-metre-wide figurative statement from an artist with a solidified international auction record.

Key details for collectors

– Title: Rien ne va Plus
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 160 x 310 cm (63 x 122 inches)
– Medium: Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
– Signed by the artist on the front and back side
– Original, one-of-a-kind artwork - MADE BY A REAL PERSON, NOT AI.
– Ships rolled without frame

What makes this piece unique

"Rien ne va plus"—no more bets. It is the croupier's last word, the phrase that freezes a roulette table the instant before the wheel decides everything. Claus Bertermann watched this exact scene unfold at the casino in Monaco, and painted it three metres wide, pitched at the moment itself.

Five players ring the table, and every one of them wears a different hat—a flat cap, a spiked crown, a pale tricorne, a soft brim pulled low—each from a different corner of the world. This is the real Monte-Carlo: the one green table where the whole planet comes to hand its money to the same spinning wheel. The ball is already running. Bets should be closed. And yet, at the far right, one man is in the act of hurling his last chips onto the field anyway—too late, past the call, past reason. Beside him, the next player has reached out and caught his arm, holding him back from throwing the rest, trying to save a stranger from the clean, total loss that is one gesture away.

That single held arm is the whole painting: the split second in which someone decides another person's ruin is not worth watching. Around this human hinge, Bertermann sets two small, deadpan offerings on trays at the table's edge—two Bitcoins on the left, a single fish on the right. The joke is for anyone who has ever sat at a table: in the old language of the game a "fish" is the player everyone else is quietly counting on, the one who keeps feeding the pot; the Bitcoins are simply the newest chips ever minted, promising the same odds as all the others. New money, old money, and the oldest bait of all—plated and served.

Why it is worth the price

This is a large-scale, museum-sized painting—160 x 310 cm, over three metres of canvas—built around a subject that is instantly legible and quietly loaded: the universal theatre of chance, caught at its one unrepeatable moment. Few contemporary figurative works carry a narrative this immediate on a wall this size.

Bertermann couples the speed of the handling—fast acrylic fields, decisive oil-stick line—with a trained architect's instinct for structure, so that five figures, a spinning wheel, a betting grid and two loaded trays never lose their spatial logic. The result is both immediately compelling from across a room and rewarding at close range, where the wit of the fish, the Bitcoins and the restraining hand slowly declares itself. For collectors it offers the best of Bertermann: expressive, high-key force disciplined by composition, and a subject with the staying power of a good parable.

Visual description & condition

The composition is a wide, panoramic scene set around a central roulette wheel, rendered in concentric bands of red, orange, cobalt and teal with its spindle at the centre; the ball is already in motion. Above the wheel lies the green betting grid, marked out in yellow-green with red numbers, and scattered gaming chips. Five figures are ranged around the table, each drawn in confident white oil-stick contour over broad, gestural fields of acrylic: on the left a figure in a blue flat cap, a second in a spiked orange crown, and a central figure in a pale blue tricorne with long braided hair; on the right, two figures in soft-brimmed and dark wide-brimmed hats—the outermost caught mid-throw, the one beside him gripping his arm to stop him.

At the lower left, a magenta tray holds two gold coins each marked with the Bitcoin symbol; at the lower right, a matching tray holds a single pink fish. Behind the players an orange lattice—like a net thrown over the grey-green wall—closes off the space. Colour is pushed past description into pure sensation: hot pinks, acid greens, cobalt and flame-orange. The work is signed "Bertermann" in magenta at the lower right.

The work is unframed and not stretched. Condition is excellent. All surface irregularities are intentional and integral to the artist's process.

Background / artistic context

Claus Bertermann works within contemporary expressive figurative painting, focused on states of being rather than mere representation. "Rien ne va Plus" places the human figure inside a charged, worldly setting—the casino as a stage where luck, greed and restraint are all visible at once—and pushes perspective and anatomy past realism to give the moment its emotional weight.

Technically the work belongs to the strand of his figurative practice built on separation: a fast, painterly acrylic ground overlaid with independent oil-stick drawing, the image constructed forward rather than layered and scraped like his abstracts. The subject—the last call at the wheel, one player saved from himself by another—turns a night at the tables into something closer to a modern morality painting, dressed in the highest-key colour Bertermann has yet allowed himself.

Practical details for buyers:

Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
Dimensions (H x W): 160 x 310 cm (63 x 122 inches)
Signed by the artist on the front and back side
Certificate of authenticity included
Shipped rolled (not framed or stretched)
Professional packaging and worldwide shipping with premium shipping companies like UPS.

The canvas includes an additional continuous white border of approximately 10 cm (approx. 4 inches) on all sides beyond the painted surface. This margin allows the artwork to be professionally restretched on museum-quality stretcher bars up to 6 cm (approx. 2.4 inches) in depth, resulting in a clean, frameless, gallery-style presentation without the need for a decorative frame.

Please note that the artwork is sold unframed and without stretcher bars. Professional stretching is the responsibility of the buyer. The painting is shipped rolled for safe international transport and flexible installation according to the buyer's preference.

The artwork is signed on both front and reverse, with title, year, and the artist's full name inscribed on the back.