WallArt: 50,000 years of color on the wall

Wherever we look, our eyes catch sight of various messages in underpasses, on house walls, train cars or on toilet doors. Often enough to the annoyance of the owners and residents. But they are formulas for communication. Some are easier to understand, others are codified according to group affiliations and cannot be interpreted by the "normal consumer".

If you look around in public and busy spaces, you quickly get the idea that people seem to have an urgent need to decorate walls, mark places with doodles and/or leave targeted messages, tell stories and myths, make political statements or simply immortalize themselves...

And this urge has probably always existed!

Even in the Stone Age 50,000 years ago, people left signs, symbols or figures on stones, artifacts or cave walls that were not originally intended for this purpose. Finds from caves near Essing bear witness to this: the carving of a mammoth on a tusk fragment or depictions of wild horses on limestone slabs.

Throughout human history, all over the world, examples of communication can be found on walls, masonry or on stone and rock slabs. From simple carvings to colorful huge painting compositions. And even today, some forms and techniques are much more similar than you might think.

The new special exhibition "WallArt. 50,000 years of color on the wall" promises a journey through time and space - from the Stone Age and Sulawesi to today, right on the museum's doorstep. From enigmatic handprints of the past to screamingly colorful "damage to property".

Supported by the Kulturfonds Bayern