commentary to #6 “On the road to Murnau”

And how is your mother doing…? or On the road to Murnau. How this came about ?

This is a piece that was in part inspired by our discovery of a great artist Gabrielle Münther. In my view she is sadly underappreciated while she has produced wonderful paintings. She happened to be for some period of time married to Vassilyi Kandinski, with whom she was a co-founder of der Blaue Reither (Blue Rider) movement in the 1911-14, and then German Expressionism, that we love.

In our tour of southern Germany in 2012, we went through a series of small museums in equally small towns south of Munich, and one of them was house of Kandinski and Münther (The Russian House) at the city of Murnau, see the photos. It is a charming house, with a small cute Schlossmuseum Murnau nearby.

in Murnau: with the Russian House in center back, The House, G.Munther:Murnau

Our eyes were all on works by Gabrielle Münther, as Kandinski is on the verge of being present in each and any museum of the universe, that you start being annoyed by him as by the-most-undeserving-it van Gogh. One of the pictures that I liked a lot, was centered around a road nearby with road-side trees and mountains in the background. The other one was more into the mountains. I liked the breath of the landscape.

Gabriele Münther

So, when I started placing the couple of my animal friends, the Rhino and the Cat, I thought they would have enjoyed the surroundings there.

As for Rhino, this is my second try on this beast. The first one was just a single animal piece. I am not the only one fascinated by its looks. However, in this cutout I placed the animal with his back to the viewer. I saw that in Pisanello’s horse in the magnificent 1438 fresco St. George and the Princess of Trebizond in Sant’Anastasia church in Verona.

Pisanello, 1438, fresco, St. George and the Princess of Trebizond, church of Sant’Anastasia, Verona, Italy.

You will recognize that I have stolen the way Münther does the trees, with these square patches. It is very appealing. Clearly, the charm of the original Münther’s painting is unsurpassable, and mine is just a distant shadow, but if you want to know, where my inspirations come from, this is an example.

The name of the piece comes from what I imagine could be a conversation of two acquaintances like that.