In Seven Days Time

Katharina Grosse pushes the limits of painting in every imaginable direction: Since 1998, she has been using compressor-powered airbrushes in addition to or instead of her paintbrush. Her painting spreads throughout a room; walls, furniture, and other objects become picturesque spatial installations; piles of rubble and earth become images or colorful sculptures. She first started making outdoor works in 2001, with a particular focus on those that created connections between interiors and exteriors.
Taking painting from interior to exterior space is a natural outcome of her work, which – along with her use of spray-painting techniques – draws parallels to street art. Katharina Grosse’s work also has an inseparable connection to space, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Her work at the Kunstmuseum is shaped like a curved sail that appears to be leaning against the museum wall. The surface is sprayed with vibrant overlapping colors.
This piece is atypical in Grosse’s work, as the color doesn’t expand into the surrounding space, but is strictly limited to the surface of the form. Even the edges of the object remain white. As such, it is reminiscent of an oversized porcelain shard, a piece of a greater whole, a fragment, which couldn’t be more different from its surroundings. Notions of the divine as well as the creative process immediately come to mind when considering the title of the work.