Commissioned by the city of Singen, Curth Georg Becker created a mural made of painted majolica tiles for each of the two entrances to the new Schillerschule building, which was completed in 1959. The compositions, which are dynamic, feature numerous figures and are rich in narrative, depict various individual scenes integrated into a unified landscape context in a continuous frieze-like sequence: harvesting, sowing, ploughing and making music appear on the north wall as one reads the sequence; the personifications of the spring, the shepherd and the hunt, accompanied by music, adorn the south wall.
Becker combined mythological, Christian and secular themes to create an Arcadian idyll in which humanity and nature form a harmonious unity. The aim was to symbolically convey the educational ideal of a humanistically educated person, familiar with the fundamental values of tradition, history and culture. The narrative murals thus fulfil the function of instructive programmatic images by which young people were to be guided.
In the style typical of the late 1950s, figuration and geometric abstraction, as well as traditional and modern elements, are interwoven. Expressive dynamism, intense colour contrasts and decorative ornamental patterns characterise the lively expression of the majolica works. Becker drew on the late Expressionist formal vocabulary of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as stylistic elements from the Classical Modernism of Picasso and Matisse, and developed a visual language of his own.
Text and editing: Kunstmuseum Singen
