Peter Ruehle

In his paintings Peter Ruehle (*1975) makes the landscape a matter of principle. Horizontal images, slim and often condensed to stripes, suffuse his work. On tapes, most of them only a few centimetres high, a rich cosmos of images is developed in highest precision. As if squinting in utmost concentration the eye falls on both visibility and sharpness of detail. In this apparent contradiction lies the power of his works. […] The serial...

In his paintings Peter Ruehle (*1975) makes the landscape a matter of principle. Horizontal images, slim and often condensed to stripes, suffuse his work. On tapes, most of them only a few centimetres high, a rich cosmos of images is developed in highest precision. As if squinting in utmost concentration the eye falls on both visibility and sharpness of detail. In this apparent contradiction lies the power of his works. […] The serial structure of Ruehle's work cycles emphasizes the conceptual approach that forms the underlying foundation of these works. They are telling us a lot about our ways of perception and the susceptibility of the human eye. The willingness to mistake easily recognizable parts for an already known image corresponds with knowledge of the physiology of perception. Here the assumption is made that while perceiving an object the human brain scans it within a fraction of a second with regard to known properties. That way a more detailed analysis becomes unnecessary. While perceiving images a little controlled process of comparing patterns is performed and additional capacities of the brain will only be used in case of significant departures from the norm. Ruehle is using these facts and by doing so he achieves the greatest possible extent of generalization without losing the specificity of perception.