Arnulf Rainer / Günter Brus

The first of a total of four presentations within the major Günter Brus retrospective is dedicated to Arnulf Rainer, who has pursued the strategy of overpainting since the mid-1950s.

Günter Brus seeks always to engage with other artists and his audience. Therefore, his collaborations with Arnulf Rainer, Dominik Steiger, and Jörg Schlick as well as a work by Sophia Süßmilch will be presented alternately within his retrospective at the Belvedere 21. It all starts with collaborations between Brus and Arnulf Rainer. In the 1980s, Rainer sent Brus some sheets to overwork. After beginning works, Rainer would always send to Günter Brus those in which he ‘could get no further’. Rainer’s series of works were usually overpainted photographs or overdrawn nature prints. Brus would then impulsively add his own pictorial and textual levels.

Arnulf Rainer (born 1929 in Baden, near Vienna) is considered the originator of Art Informel in Austria. He achieved international renown for his ‘overpaintings’, which he developed in the 1950s. His intensive search for new ways of painting and his steady development of innovative artistic strategies, accompanied by performative works and extensive writings, have made Arnulf Rainer one of the most influential living contemporary artists.

Curated by Harald Krejci.

#GuenterBrus21