This copy of a small decorated egg is very special. It reminds us of the early works of Katharina Grosse. It is a replica of an egg that the artist painted in 1971, when she was about nine or ten years old.
In her later work, she focused on the idea of transience, which is the idea that things are always changing and never stay the same. Many of her large artworks are taken down after they have been put on display. Sometimes she even destroys them on purpose. For Katharina Grosse, beauty is in the moment of pleasure for the viewer. The work exists only in the moment it is seen, before disappearing.
This makes her little egg even more special. It has never been shown before.
Look closely at the tiny surfaces and you can already feel the artist's joy in playing with colour. Is the blue half of the egg meant to be a lake? And is that a brown boat with a red sail dancing on it? Or is the young artist intuitively exploring the principles that will be key to her later work? The red lines look like the flowing movement of oil paint. They look like the spray paint technique used in Katharina Grosse's later work.
The choice of foundation is also interesting. The curves of the egg make a picture with lots of different points of view. Even at this early stage, the artist is thinking beyond the limitations of traditional figurative painting. The uneven surface affects how the colour is distributed, and this is something that Katharina Grosse continues to develop in her work today.
Look closely, and you can see the artist's fingerprints on the white eggshell. These fingerprints are a direct trace of her body and show something that we also see in the expansive movements of the spray technique in her later works.
Here in the Marble Hall, you can also see a later piece by the artist from 2007. The egg-like shape in this painting shows a connection to her previous work, but this time she used acrylics and the spray technique on a large surface.
To continue your tour, follow the signs to the intermediate room.