Nitsch & Arnulf Rainer
Radical shifts in 20th-century art
As a companion to the exhibition “Arnulf Rainer & Hermann Nitsch” at the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden, the Nitsch Foundation in Vienna will present, from 10 November 2026, a compelling dialogue between two outstanding Austrian artists of the post-war avant-garde. Entitled “Nitsch & Arnulf Rainer – Radical Shifts in 20th-Century Art”, the exhibition brings together two artistic positions that radically challenged the boundaries of the image, the body and the traditional concept of art. Overpainting and action, trace and body, destruction and transformation become forms of expression through which the creative process itself becomes the subject.
One connection between Rainer and Nitsch is the engagement with fear as an existential human experience. In Rainer’s work, fear becomes visible through gestural intensity, distortion and overpainting, turning the picture plane into a site of direct confrontation with inner states of tension. Nitsch extends this exploration into space and into the physical and sensory experience of the action. In his Orgien Mysterien Theater, action, ritual, colour and sound become means of bringing suppressed sensations to the surface and initiating processes of transformation and catharsis.
“the fascination that rainer’s work holds for me has accompanied and defined my entire life; hardly any other contemporary artist has had such a profound impact. i freely admit that i owe him a great deal as a painter; i have learned much from him. for me, rainer has always been the measure of what can be achieved in this discipline. he has often accompanied my own painterly development as a towering figure i could not escape from. i know that i cannot surpass him as a painter; it is only through the overall construct of my gesamtkunstwerk-the o.m. theater that i can achieve something of comparable magnitude.
in the late 1950s, rainer’s work was considered the newest and most radical in modern painting. for some young artists and intellectuals, he was an insider’s secret. for the average austrian, he was public enemy number one. in austria it has always been the case that a radical innovator is made out to be a court jester, and it will probably always be like that.
his idea of simply painting over pictures with black paint and passing it off as art became a source of public amusement. the high point of his scandalous career at the time came in november 1961, when he painted over the award-winning print of a german artist at an exhibition in wolfsburg. rainer was arrested, and the incident was reported on the main news of the aus-trian broadcasting corporation. it was unprecedented for the news to take an interest in an artist. as a younger generation, rainer’s actions made a deep impression on us, especially his steadfastness. the balancing act between aggression and artistic authenticity was something new.”
Hermann Nitsch über Arnulf Rainer, 1997
The presentation demonstrates how differently Rainer and Nitsch responded to the radical shifts in art after 1945, while also revealing the close connections between their approaches through their shared interest in process, materiality, corporeality and existential experience. At the same time, the presentation offers a complementary perspective to the exhibition at the Arnulf Rainer Museum and invites visitors to follow the artistic dialogue between Rainer and Nitsch across both exhibition venues.
The exhibition will be opened by Dr. Nikolaus Kratzer, whose guest lecture will introduce the dialogue between the two artists.
© Arnulf Rainer (Studio Arnulf Rainer) © Hermann Nitsch (Foto: Hans Niederbacher)