Alexander Strohte

The Berlin-based artist Alexander Strohte, whose main artistic subject is water and the reflections on its surface, has a deep emotional connection to the French coast due to his exhibitions in recent years and his travels. In "Dreaming of Monaco on the Planches in Deauville", Strohte visualises the dichotomy of his feelings for the Côte Fleurie, a stretch of coast in the Calvados department of Normandy, on the one hand, and the Côte d'Azur on the Mediterranean on the other. Strohte addresses his "inner turmoil" (Strohte) by means of colours and forms, which he links to both natural spaces and living environments, and combines them into a dynamic colour composition that takes up the entire pictorial field. The colours red, yellow, blue, orange and green are exemplary of the parasols on the beach in Deauville (Côte Fleurie), which, like the Planches, the world-famous promenade made of wooden planks laid out in 1923 and listed as a historical monument since 2019, have become a trademark of the seaside resort. These colours, as a broad, short brushstroke structure embodying the calm contemplation of the north, unite in Strohte's composition with the azure tones of the Mediterranean, whose lively, rounded, fine brushstrokes symbolise the lively south.