A celebration of Collioure

Andreas Ruthi : The most beautiful blue in the world

By Ellen Turner Hall

Inaugurating the new exhibition space  Côté Galerie  at  the Musée  d’art moderne, Andreas Ruthi’s  colourful canvases speak of freedom and joy. Free  of perspective and shadow, immersed in the joy of nature’s abundance, his dappled landscapes celebrate life.

The most beautiful blue in the world refers to the sea and the sky of Collioure, where Ruthi began working outdoors in 2021. Until then the artist had painted inside in artificial light: small objects, toys and curiosities arranged on a mantel piece sometimes beside a postcard of a well-known painting.

Working  in dazzling sunlight under  the blue Mediterranean sky transformed Ruthi’s  vision.   The dark blue of the sea peers out from behind the foliage  like so many eyes. A scene with two cork trees, trunks bright red-orange, resembles a crazy quilt of pink, yellow, green and blue patches. The famed clock tower and the harbour light  seen from above the village, extend like a protective arm embracing the bay and its huddle of houses.

Images of white wavelets dancing on the water, orange vines hugging the hills and long-beaked birds melting into the undergrowth  all sing Ruthi’s ode to joy.

The exhibition runs from 18 November 2023 to 7 January 2024.

For details : contact@museecollioure.com