to the right of the entrance to the max-rubner institute (formerly the federal institute for meat research), a powerful bull is giving birth to a female, its neck hair bristling. the result of fertility is shown in the drawings on the right: the formation of herds with bison calves, young animals and adult hinds. At the end of the wall, the bull is seen collapsing as if struck in the heart by the sword of a torero. the last picture shows him lying flat on the earth, with which he is growing together. But even in death the animal retains its dignity.
The fascinating series of pictures about the cycle of life on the foyer wall of the federal research institute for meat research was created by max wild. The artist borrowed the motifs from the world-famous neolithic rock paintings of altamira in cantabria (northern spain). Unknown artists of the new stone age painted 250 rock drawings on the ceilings of caves and underground passages about 14,000 years ago. many people have fallen for its beauty and magic, especially modern artists. "After altamira everything is downfall", said for example pablo picasso.
Max wild is not interested in reproduction, but in reproducing the expressive power of the originals using modern painting techniques. His ideas convinced the expert commission in 1975. The anonymous call for tenders for the new building of the research institute in the E.-C.-baumann street, he clearly prevailed over his competitors from all over germany.
the kulmbach artist tries to approach the altitude paintings of altamira with a combination of wet and spray techniques. there, the dyes mixed with fat or protein were painted with animal hair, tufts of moss and palms of the hands. In addition, tubular bones were used to inflate the dyes with the mouth.
Wild imitates the process by applying natural mineral colors dissolved in silicic acid via a compressor with a spray gun. the effect is astonishing: the animal panorama appears abstract and modern through the watercolor on the one hand, while on the other hand it exactly matches the color gradations of the original with its red, yellow and brown pigmented ochre earths, manganese and wood charcoal.
max wild does not miss one of the greatest mysteries of early art: the negative handprints. They are created when the splayed fingers are used as a stencil and sprayed over them. next to the dying bull there is one. The meaning of the hand negatives is mysterious. Did magical rituals of shamans play a role? Is it the need to immortalize oneself with a handprint??
the artist’s son, gunter wild, talked to his father about the meaning of the hand while working on the artwork. "He saw them as a sign of the possession of the animal by man three million years ago, in the paleolithic era. The animal becomes a victim of human life. For my father, a decisive step in evolution", gunter wild remembers. On this occasion, he also reveals a secret: it is his hand that served as a stencil for his father.
The fountain sculpture to the right of the entrance, with which roland and ursula doerk from steinberg won another tender in 1975, is about archaic animal sacrifices. On the paved area, they place curved granite blocks, which form a stylized sacrificial table. Around it seats for the spectators. the forecourt of the federal institute becomes a sacrificial site.