»The Sprayed Dear« was made by Katharina Grosse especially for this exhibition, and is also the title of the exhibition itself. The work fills the entire floor of the Dome Room in the Kunstgebäude.
It is a giant wave made of aluminium that spreads out on the floor. Like much of her current work, it is sprayed with bright, overlapping colours.
The curly shape makes it look like it's moving, which makes the viewer's gaze follow it. But as with other of her works, the artist has not just painted the material of the sculpture. Paint covers the floor area, creating a visual universe that visitors can enter.
Here, painting becomes a spatial experience. It is not just on one object or surface, but has become a space you can walk into. For the exhibition, Katharina Grosse has transformed the Dome Room into a world of paint. If you go and see it for yourself, you will see that you are inside the artwork when you take a step into the room. How you move and where you stand affects how you see the work. You become part of the art for a few moments.
»The Sprayed Dear« explores ideas of space and movement, and the connection between painting and sculpture.
Is a painting still a painting if it is not a permanent, static object? Does the Dome Room still feel like the Dome Room if the artist has used colour and paint to change it? And what will be left of »The Sprayed Dear« once the exhibition closes and the work is removed? Through her artistic choices and the short-lived nature of her creations, Katharina Grosse invites us to reconsider and expand our understanding of what painting means as an art form, or even to question the very idea of a "painting".
You can stay in the Dome Room for now. In the next section of the tour, you will learn more about the history and architecture of the Kunstgebäude.