The works in this room have two things in common. First, they were all made in 1987, when Katharina Grosse was studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Second, they are painted on an unusual base. Instead of using canvas, the artist chose polyethylene, a synthetic material that is slightly shiny.
Because of the wax-like surface of this material, the paint does not always stick well to it, which gives the paintings an interesting structure. Unlike traditional paintings, they are three-dimensional. Katharina Grosse uses layers and smears of colour, playing with the contrast between fully opaque and transparent. In some places, the paint has been applied as a kind of impenetrable paste. In other places, the artist has deliberately allowed the see-through base material to shine through, creating an illusion of depth.
These paintings, which Katharina Grosse made as a student, show signs of the style that would later become her trademark. They show that even then, she was experimenting with the nature of materials and how colour can transform space.
We can see the young artist searching for ways to move beyond traditional ideas of painting and to free it from the limitations of a two-dimensional visual language. But these early works also show something else. They also show how she was starting to make paintings that go beyond the traditional two-dimensional picture.
Now, go to Room 112. Here you can see works by the artist from the years 1989-1990, when she continued to experiment with painting in three dimensions.