Work group II · 15 works
The Animal as Counterpart
Modern animal portraits between color, surface and stillness
For some years now, Erich Graf has opened his realist painting to a new, contemporary language. The animals come close to the viewer, without landscape, without narrative. Lion, tiger, elephant and gorilla look straight at the viewer, koi glide through clear water, and color in turquoise, pink, yellow and neon breaks open around them.
In the bird pictures, this stance turns graphic. Blue jay, waxwing and bird of paradise perch in front of painted picture windows and fields of color, songbirds line up as on a pictorial tableau, swallows rest on the wire in front of an abstract wall. Alongside them, “Polarbear family” and “Childhood” take the opposite path: in finely graded grays, they speak of protection and trust.
Color as Energy
Bird Worlds
Stillness in Gray
Curatorial Perspective
I
Description
Seventeen paintings in oil and acrylic. “Lion modern” and “Tiger modern” (each 90 × 120 cm) are the group’s large formats. The animals remain precisely modeled, while the ground dissolves into gestural brushstrokes, glazes, drips, framing motifs and clear fields of color.
II
Idea
The animal becomes a portrait with personality. Dignity, calm and presence are at the forefront, not the hunt or the wild. Color translates the animals’ strength into energy; in the bird pictures, the composition itself becomes the subject, while in the grisailles the quiet language of care takes its place.
III
Context
The works combine Graf’s decades of experience as an animal painter with strategies of contemporary Pop and urban art and with the pictorial logic of collage and tableau. In this way, an established realist builds a bridge to a younger generation of collectors without giving up his signature: anatomy and expression remain precise.
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What sets it apart
The group is divided into three chapters. “Color as Energy” brings together seven richly colored portraits, including the reclining “Neon Tiger” and the “Japanische Farb-Kois.” “Bird Worlds” shows seven bird pictures between nature study and pictorial architecture, with the “Schwalben auf Ansitz” as a pair. “Stillness in Gray” comprises two grisailles in the same format (each 50 × 70 cm).
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For collectors & spaces
The modern portraits set strong accents in lofts, agencies, offices, hotels and restaurants. The bird pictures suit living spaces, practices and reception areas, also as a pair or series. The grisailles fit calm spaces and places of retreat. Together they show the range of a painter who is reinventing himself after more than four decades.