Arnulf Rainer
Gefesselter Blitz
Artist
Arnulf Rainer
Additional Description
Collage, Öl über Fotografie und Karton von Schoellershammer, auf Malpappe aufgezogen. In Schattenfugenrahmen. (1981-1982). Ca. 101,5 x 73 cm (Rahmen ca. 106,5 x 77,5 cm). Monogrammiert „R.“ unten links.
Period
(1929 Baden bei Wien)
Technique
Paintings
Ausstellung
Sentieri interrotti: crisi della rappresentazione e iconoclastia nelle arti dagli anni Cinquanta alla fine del secolo, Palazzo Bonaguro, Bassano del Grappa 2000, verso mit dem Etikett.
Provenance
Morra Sammlung, Neapel, verso mit dem Stempel; Privatsammlung, Italien.
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Description
- Expressive, intoxicating work with the hand and finger painting typical of the early 1980s
- Complex, multi-layered composition in a cross arrangement
- The Viennese Actionist is one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century, his works can be found in museums and private collections worldwide
Already at documenta 7 /1982 in Kassel - the time in which the present work was created - the audience was deeply impressed by the loose and lavishly colorful formulations that unfolded in Arnulf Rainer's work. The starting point for these intoxicatingly expressive works is a newly discovered technique that Rainer uses here: After breaking his brush during a vigorous act of painting, he began to continue painting with his hands and fingers. These hand and finger paintings enabled the artist to radically expand his already rich, changeable handwriting and the style-defining principle of overpainting. He was now able to express himself much more directly on the canvas. The body itself became a painting instrument with which he could wipe, slap or slap the paint onto the canvas. All extremes of artistic expression break through in these works, from silence to deafening noise, from gestural wiping to careful deliberation. The blurs of color are sometimes reminiscent of snakes and spider webs, which are densely intertwined and interwoven, sometimes of compact strips of color that obscure the view of photographic prints underneath. "Gefesselter Blitz" is an outstanding example of this complex, multi-layered way of working. The motif of the cross, which plays a central role in Arnulf Rainer's oeuvre, is subtly hinted at in the composition.
We would like to thank Studio Arnulf Rainer for their kind assistance in cataloguing this work.
- Complex, multi-layered composition in a cross arrangement
- The Viennese Actionist is one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century, his works can be found in museums and private collections worldwide
Already at documenta 7 /1982 in Kassel - the time in which the present work was created - the audience was deeply impressed by the loose and lavishly colorful formulations that unfolded in Arnulf Rainer's work. The starting point for these intoxicatingly expressive works is a newly discovered technique that Rainer uses here: After breaking his brush during a vigorous act of painting, he began to continue painting with his hands and fingers. These hand and finger paintings enabled the artist to radically expand his already rich, changeable handwriting and the style-defining principle of overpainting. He was now able to express himself much more directly on the canvas. The body itself became a painting instrument with which he could wipe, slap or slap the paint onto the canvas. All extremes of artistic expression break through in these works, from silence to deafening noise, from gestural wiping to careful deliberation. The blurs of color are sometimes reminiscent of snakes and spider webs, which are densely intertwined and interwoven, sometimes of compact strips of color that obscure the view of photographic prints underneath. "Gefesselter Blitz" is an outstanding example of this complex, multi-layered way of working. The motif of the cross, which plays a central role in Arnulf Rainer's oeuvre, is subtly hinted at in the composition.
We would like to thank Studio Arnulf Rainer for their kind assistance in cataloguing this work.