Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris pays tribute to Hermann Nitsch
As part of the exhibition series “Contemporary Counterpoints”, the Musée de l’Orangerie is presenting the exhibition “Hermann Nitsch. Homage” until 12 February 2024.
Under the usual strict security precautions, the exhibition “Hermann Nitsch. Hommage” was opened on Wednesday, October 11 2023. A select circle of 150 international guests had the opportunity to admire the juxtaposition of Hermann Nitsch’s works with Claude Monet’s famous water lilies.
Posthumouse presentation
Hermann Nitsch was always fascinated by Monet’s water lilies, to which he paid homage every time he visited the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Shortly before his passing, he was invited to France for a dialogue with this Impressionist masterpiece. Originally planned as a reference by the Viennese Actionist to the master of Impressionism, this posthumous presentation has now become a homage to Nitsch himself, explained Claire Bernardi, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition in her moving opening speech.
Although Hermann Nitsch no longer had time to realise his project for the Musée de l’Orangerie by himself, the museum still wanted to pay tribute to him one year after his death with this contemporary counterpoint. The result is an exhibition that brings together 5 action paintings and 21 drawings from his late work, selected by Claire Bernardi at the artist’s studio in Prinzendorf. The works are exhibited in the Pronaos, the room leading to the large oval exhibition rooms with the water lilies, and in the contemporary room in the basement of the Musée de l’Orangerie.
“My expressive and religious painting became an accomplished drama, an analytical dramaturgy in my O.M. Theatre. What remains are intense rushes of colour and designs that stand out far above the content, such as the colour ecstasies of Monet’s water lilies,” Hermann Nitsch explained in conversation with co-curator Sarah Imatte while planing this exhibition.
Encounter in the late work
While Monet in his late work developed further and further away from the depiction of a clearly recognisable pictorial content towards almost abstract, but atmospherically vibrating colour surfaces, the idea of figural painting seemed to be hinted at in Nitsch’s last works. Throughout his life, Hermann Nitsch always emphasised that in his painting it was not the colour tone that was essential, but the substance of the colour, the matter, the liquid, the colour paste. He nevertheless opted for an increasingly cheerful, colourful palette in the last years of his career.
“It gives me great pleasure to concentrate on the flowery luminosity of the colour substance in my works, which I am still able to produce at the age of eighty. I am concerned with the matter of the colours, I want to burrow into the fluidity of the colours, they shine like deep-sea fish.” Hermann Nitsch (2020)
“He enjoyed painting these pictures very much and I am sorry that he could not continue that new way that he started in age” regrets his wife Rita Nitsch.
Exhibition catalogue
Accompanying the exhibition, Skira Editore published a lovingly designed bilingual catalogue with contributions by co-curator Sarah Imatte and Hermann Nitsch. The book is a bow to the painter Hermann Nitsch. Nitsch was inspired by a religious dramaturgy and was an ardent admirer of impressionism, especially Claude Monet and his nymphaeas. With the paintings in the exhibition, the artist delivered works in expressive colours that are deeply in tune with Monet’s works.
Thanks to
This project was realised by the director of the Musée de l’Orangerie, Claire Bernardi together with the curator Sarah Imatte, and thanks to the support of the gallery owner Eric Dereumaux. At his Galerie RX, 16 Rue Quatre Fils, 75003 Paris, the second part of the programme “Hermann Nitsch. Bayreuth” will be shown until November 25, 2023.
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