Arnulf Rainer

The Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer is considered one of the central figures of the Austrian art scene. Rainer describes his ‘artistic birth,’ at the age of 17, as a reaction against normality. Avant-garde artists were considered insane by society at that time. After a brief surrealist period, he created abstract-expressionist and tachist paintings. He often experimented with the creative impulses triggered by drugs and alcohol. In the 1950s, he developed his übermalungen (‘overpaintings’), which brought him international recognition. He reworked and overpainted existing works of himself or other artists, making the original unrecognizable or even disappear. This overpainting of existing paintings is a destructive but also emotional act: a desperate attempt to complement and intensify the image. For his overpaintings, he usually uses emotionally powerful colors such as red and black. Sometimes, he leaves a few corners or edges of the original work uncovered, allowing the underlying image to remain behind the barrier of overpainting. Due to the primary and almost exhibitionistic expression, Rainer’s work from this period is sometimes compared to that of the Wiener Aktionisten from Rainer’s immediate environment. These artists jointly expressed obsessions, fears, and impulses in public performances in a mystical-theatrical manner. However, Rainer contrasts the public and total self-degradation of the Wiener Aktionisten with the positive power of his unrelenting creative drive and the aesthetics of the absurd and the hidden.

The exhibitions at MDD and Museum Dr. Guislain explore how a contemporary artist can be interested in expressions devoid of any self-censorship and why an artist decides to collect them on the one hand and imitate their creation processes on the other hand. Since his debut, the identity of the outsider has been part of his artistic actions. Rainer has always defended the concept that creation must primarily rely on a complete commitment to the demands of the expressive act, on a psychological and physical level. Arnulf Rainer's attitude indicates that it is primarily the outsiders themselves who serve as models, not so much their art.