Nitsch & Arnulf Rainer

radical shifts in 20th-century art

November 10, 2026, 6.30pm

Nitsch Foundation, Vienna, AT

In conjunction with the exhibition “Arnulf Rainer & Hermann Nitsch” at the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden, the Nitsch Foundation in Vienna will—starting November 10, 2026—explore the dynamic dialogue between two outstanding Austrian artists of the post-war avant-garde.

Titled “Nitsch & Arnulf Rainer – Radical Shifts in 20th-Century Art,” the exhibition focuses on two artistic approaches that radically engage with 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 for an art that makes the creative process itself its subject.

Rainer and Nitsch share a fundamental interest in transcending established forms of imagery and perception. Neither views art as a static result, but rather as an open process experienced physically and materially. In Rainer’s work, the picture surface becomes a site of constant change through overpainting, densification, deformation, and gestural intervention; what was originally visible is receded and overlaid, yet simultaneously brought forth anew. Nitsch extends the artistic process into space: in his Orgies Mysteries Theater, action, ritual, color, sound, body, and time combine to create a comprehensive sensory event.

In doing so, both artists also touch upon the existential dimensions of human experience. While Rainer’s early works process—among other things—states of inner tension, physical intensity, and the experience of anxiety through a radically heightened visual language, Nitsch focuses on broader physical and existential experiences. In the Orgies Mysteries Theater, perception, affect, and physical experience are channeled into a process of densification and transformation. While fear is one possible aspect of this experience of pushing boundaries, it does not stand in isolation at the center; rather, it is embedded in a far broader understanding of art as a realm of existential and sensory experience.

The common ground shared by Rainer and Nitsch lies less in any single motif than in a fundamental attitude toward art. Both transcend the boundaries of the traditional image and place the creative process itself at the center. Materiality, physicality, gesture, space, and time become independent artistic factors. New forms of perception emerge from overpainting and action, reduction and intensification, destruction and transformation.

The presentation at the Nitsch Foundation reveals the distinct ways in which Rainer and Nitsch responded to the upheavals in art following 1945, while also highlighting how closely their positions are linked by a shared interest in process, materiality, physicality, and existential experience. It offers insight into two artists who not only expanded the 20th-century concept of art but also radically questioned and redefined its fundamental premises.

At the same time, this presentation serves as a complementary perspective to the exhibition “Arnulf Rainer – Hermann Nitsch” at the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden, inviting visitors to continue exploring the dialogue between the two artists across both venues.

Opening ceremony on Tuesday, 10 November 2026 at 18:30 with key note speaker Dr. Nikolaus Kratzer

Nitsch Foundation
Hegelgasse 5
1010 Vienna
Austria
www.nitsch-foundation.com