Hermann Nitsch

Over the summer of 2024, Museum Jorn will show the first comprehensive solo exhibition in Denmark with the internationally renowned Austrian painter and action artist Hermann Nitsch (1938-2022).

Nitsch counts among the most provocative visual artists of the European post-war avant-garde. As a co-founder of the radical aesthetic movement Wiener Aktionismus, which challenged the value set of modern society through performative artistic taboo breaking, in the 1960s he consciously sought confrontation with state systems and the institutional authorities of the Christian faith community.

Nitsch’s life and art can be characterized as an active process of excessive suffering. His many appearances in public space and expressive paintings are characterized by an intense appropriation of religious rituals and symbols. There are spells, crucifixions and sacrifices in Nitsch’s aesthetic production, which culminates in the so-called orgy-mystery theater, where performance, visual art, music, science and life merge into an opulent and ritually heightened Gesamtkunstwerk.

The exhibition at Museum Jorn is designed retrospectively and contains more than 150 important paintings, immersive installations, videos, photographs and musical and graphic works from the 1960s until 2022. The exhibited works delve into the various themes and genres that Nitsch’s challenging and expressive arts operate with.

The project is realized under the patronage of the Austrian Embassy in Denmark and in close cooperation with the nitsch museum in Mistelbach, the Nitsch Foundation in Vienna and the artist’s estate in Prinzendorf. The exhibition is gratefully supported by Augustinus Fonden, 15. Juni Fonden and Knud Højgaards Fond.