Untitled, 2011

Painting of blood/acrylic on beaten gold

Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 6.50 cm

"Colour rush". This is the buzzword par excellence that one comes across again and again in connection with the work of Hermann Nitsch. This rush of colour is not only found in the finished paintings and pouring pictures, but also in the aesthetic process leading up to them, which consists of slaughtering and sacrificial rituals. In his theoretical book "Orgien-Mysterien-Theater", Nitsch describes that his actions and paintings are intended to cause disgust and revulsion in the viewer at first and then a catharsis.

Hermann Nitsch was born in Vienna in 1938 and is considered a representative of Viennese Actionism. Initially he worked as a commercial artist at the Technical Museum. In the early 1960s, he created his first painting actions and his sensational and also controversial Orgien- Mysterien-Theater. Nitsch held several guest professorships and received the Grand Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts in 2005.