Hermann Nitsch

Wolfgang Denk

Carl Aigner

Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch, who was born in Vienna in 1938, began painting in the late 1950s and early 1960s under the influence of Tachisme and Abstract Expressionism. He subsequently put on "theatrical" painting performances during which the so-called Schuttbilder (spill paintings) were created. Although Nitsch was still using red paint on his large canvases in 1961, he gradually replaced it with blood. Instead of stretching canvas on frames, he began to use bed sheets, and also started working with internal organ, animal cadavers, and human bodies. With his Orgies Mysteries Theater, Nitsch fulfilled his concept of a Gesamtkunstwerk, a complete work of art embracing painting architecture, and music with reference to Greek mystery festivals aiming to achieve catharsis that would ultimately lead to the recognition of one's own self.

Wolfgang Denk

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