Regarding the many celebrated artists we represent at Limelight, and the amazing company they keep, the question most often asked is, “what trait do they share that make them the one-in-a-million success that they are?” And after many years of working with some of the most noted artists and performers in the world, I have only found one common ingredient... they have no choice. 

I don't mean this in the romantic, they were born for greatness way, or they were driven by a dream that they would not give up, either.

I mean that they were going to either do it on stage for millions, or on canvas for droves of collectors. Or they would do it in a basement apartment or in a subway station for loose change. The point isn't whether they prosper or suffer, they have no choice but to do their art. It is who they are, not what they do.

It is this same common truth shared by both Kruger and Richards that makes their bond as both friends and muse to the artist so clearly understandable to all who admire the music and the paintings.

Looking at Kruger's work in person, even the most casual observer senses that there is something happening that goes far beyond great painting. Much further than perfect articulations of the most subtlest of feature. There is a feeling that is difficult to name but easy to feel, that can only come from an artist breathing - through his brush - life onto the canvas. And this can only come from an artist who is living his life fully in his art.

Sebastian Kruger has perfectly addressed this very thing in his latest work of Keith Richards entitled The Human Riff. (Print on paper).

Kruger (as many fans of Richards' know) did not coin that rightfully earned name. The name goes back much further, and has stuck for good reason. It perfectly describes the artistic being of Richards. It speaks to a musician who puts every bit of himself in to every note he plays, who is so fluid with his music that there is no distinction from where the musician stops and the instrument begins. It is all one.