Rasmus Hirthe
Looking at the work of Rasmus Hirthe requires no instruction, but this guide to a more indepth
look should guide the eye and sensitize.
In terms of form, color and theme, Rasmus Hirthe has consistently followed his path: In the
non-colors black and white, he depicts people in recreational situations in an objective manner.
Through this stringency, he has created a unique selling point, a high recognition, which measures
his artistic quality. A serious artist should urgently develop his own handwriting instead of
becoming infected with every stylistic cold and changing between different ways of painting.
If we look at the color, it initially seems limited to non-colors. Black and white painting in
proverbial use suggests sharp separations and demands unambiguity. However, the painter
succeeds in suggesting color by transmitting very bright light into sharp contrasts. A color sound
is created by the thick application of the layers of material on the coarsely woven ground, the
light shines through and thus gives the picture luminosity. The color created by this mysterious
oscillation is perceived by the observer subjectively – everyone discovers his own individual
color. When I asked the painter about his concentrated palette at the beginning of our joint work,
he reacted quite surprised: ‘For me, my pictures are colorful’.
Rasmus can make black shine, create a shimmering color through non-color, and enthrall the
viewer with his irrepressible pleasure in painting. Viola Stohwasser-Gerdsen MA
Rasmus Hirthe was born in 1971 in Hamburg.
From 1996 to 2004 he studied Fine Art and Visual Communication (focus on film) at the University
of Fine Arts Hamburg and received his diploma there in 2004.
Rasmus Hirthe