"Die Familie " ( The Family) by Curth Georg Becker

In 1960, Curth Georg Becker created the monumental wall mosaic ‘The Family’ for the building that formerly housed the Maggi GmbH pension fund. Set within a finely detailed structure of geometrically abstracted contrasting colour fields, the lower half of the composition features a strictly stylised group of figures – a father, mother and child – surrounded by landscape elements. From the dense, tapestry-like fabric of glass mosaic tiles set against a white plaster background, individual motifs such as trees, hills and bodies of water can be discerned, thereby establishing thematic links to the regional surroundings of Hegau and Lake Constance. Above the figures depicted, the sky unfolds in a non-representational dynamic, featuring transparent overlays and irregularly jagged contours. The stillness and tranquillity, order and security in the lower zone—centred on the family—contrast with the movement and action, disorder and change in the upper section.

The aim is to symbolically visualise the idea of the family as the foundation of society and as a social welfare model for old age and the future. The mural thus made a direct reference to the building’s function and use, so that art and architecture form a unity not only in form but also in content. The message of humankind as a social being, embedded in the Hegau landscape, is powerfully evoked and conveyed to the surrounding urban space, visible from afar. In the manner typical of his late style, Becker translated this meaningful theme into a formal language that straddles figuration and abstraction, between legible representationalism and timeless, universally applicable schematisation.

The choice of the mosaic technique – alongside the fresco, the oldest and most durable method for creating murals in both indoor and outdoor spaces – lends the façade decoration a refined, almost precious quality of expression, which further elevates the depicted theme.

Text and editing: Kunstmuseum Singen