Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner; since then private collection Switzerland.

Ralph Fleck, born in Freiburg/Breisgau in 1951, still works there today, as well as in Nürnberg and Portugal. He is an artist and Professor for painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg. His works move between realistic and abstract figuration; from a distance the picture appears very realistic, but seen up close abstract forms are revealed. His paintings reveal themselves to the viewer only after a second look or after prolongued observation.

In our work one sees a colourful crowd from a distance, through the expressive and impasto application of paint however, abstract forms and colour fields appear in detail. Patches of color appear superimposed and layered, resulting in a relief-like surface. This play between representation and abstraction, between colors and shapes, and in the structures of the application of the paint and the technique, contribute decisively to the tension of the work.