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Rupprecht Geiger’s “Gerundetes Blau” Now at Gasteig HP8

To keep the blue oval that graced the Gasteig’s forecourt since 1987 safe during the building’s renovation, Rupprecht Geiger’s sculpture has been moved to the Gasteig’s HP8 site in Sendling. Installed in front of Hall E, it now graces the forecourt of the interim location.

Outside, during the day, a power station in the background, a large, blue, round work of art hanging from a crane in the foreground, a brick building on the left.
Wide load: Rupprecht Geiger’s sculpture arriving at Sendling after its night-time transport. Copyright: Melanie Brandl/Gasteig

A Munich landmark on the move

In the mid-1980s, the Munich artist and architect Rupprecht Geiger was commissioned to design a sculpture for the Gasteig, which was still under construction at the time. In 1987, two years after the arts centre in Haidhausen opened its doors to the public, the “Gerundetes Blau” – a huge, pill-shaped blue oval – was revealed. Located adjacent to Rosenheimer Straße, the work of art has been a prominent landmark for the Gasteig’s audiences, art lovers and passers-by ever since.

 

It took two mobile cranes to lift the sheet steel object, which is about 6.5 metres wide and weighs 12 tonnes, onto a flat-bed lorry. Being an extra-wide load, its transport from Haidhausen to Sendling had to be closely coordinated with the city’s roads authority and the police. Since early November, the landmark, freshly cleaned, is now gracing the Am Kulturkraftwerk plaza in front of the Gasteig HP8.

“The Gerundetes Blau has been part of the Gasteig for more than three decades now. So it’s wonderful that the sculpture – like the Gasteig itself – will now be at home in Sendling for a while.”

Gasteig Managing Director Stephanie Jenke
Outside, at night, a round, blue work of art hangs from a crane. People in high-visibility waistcoats stand all around it.
Outside, at night, a round, blue work of art is lifted by a crane over a closed road.
Outside, at night, a round, blue work of art is lowered from a crane onto a heavy goods lorry. Another crane in the foreground.

“Rupprecht Geiger created a lot of art in public spaces in Munich over the decades,” says the artist’s granddaughter Julia Geiger, who now runs the Geiger Archive in Solln. “But he regarded the Gerundetes Blau at the Gasteig as particularly important.”

 

In designing the monumental work, Geiger deliberately focussed on form and colour: the slightly oval “dented circle”, which is affectionately known by people in Munich as the “tin of Nivea”, is coated in ultramarine blue acrylic to form a stark contrast with the rather angular, austere architecture of the red brick Gasteig building. Can this landmark, created specially for the Haidhausen Gasteig, also unfold its effect in the Gasteig HP8? Julia Geiger is delighted to have the opportunity of seeing the sculpture in a different location, a completely new context.

“The Gerundetes Blau will once again be an eye-catcher, this time drawing attention to the Isarphilharmonie. Kind of a reload.”

Julia Geiger, granddaughter of the artist Rupprecht Geiger

Pay the Gasteig HP8 a visit or drive along Brudermühlstraße and you’ll already see the blue oval from afar. When the Gasteig returns to Haidhausen after the building’s refurbishment, Geiger’s work will return to its original home, says Gasteig Managing Director Stephanie Jenke: “The Gasteig will shine in new splendour. And that, of course, must include the Gerundetes Blau as our unique landmark.”

Gasteig Managing Director Stephanie Jenke (right) with Julia Geiger, granddaughter of Rupprecht Geiger, in front of the artwork.
Delighted with the sculpture’s relocation to the Gasteig HP8: Julia Geiger (left) and Stephanie Jenke Copyright: Benedikt Feiten/Gasteig

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