In the foreground of “untitled” (2025), a hunched-over figure sneaks away, boots in hand, past a second figure cowering in a simple cell or gate structure, boots by their side. As the element connecting the two, the motif of the boots makes the figures eerie doppelgängers. Their situations, however, could not be more different: While one is literally walking off the field – the undulating landscape in the background is executed in greens and yellows – the other is holding their ground. The mystical atmosphere, heightened by Althoff’s dense brushwork, recalls Symbolist paintings. Meanwhile, the scene also appears to gesture toward the arbitrariness with which refugees are currently being detained in camps while citizens of the West enjoy freedom of movement. Befitting a world that is out of joint, the warped stretcher frame of the original cants the picture into a lozenge. We are manifestly faced with impressions that break the mold.In terms of its visual idiom, the gloomy scene brings Pierre Bonnard’s ­paintings to mind, especially Bonnard’s portraits of his wife, Marthe, which are filled with a similarly ominous aura. Althoff’s picture, which we selected in consultation with him for this edition, was shown late last year in a presentation curated by Galerie Neu, Berlin, for which the artist designed the gallery rooms of a palazzo in Genoa like an interior, with furniture and translucent curtains. Besides exhibitions at galleries or institutions, Althoff has repeatedly shown at comparatively out-of-the-way venues, which, as in this instance, make for perfect counterparts to his idiosyncratic visual language and painting style.