Rite of Passage

The performative paradigm of a new concept of art, which sees painting and sculpture as directly tangible, eventful and procedural gestures, has shaped the development of the arts in the second half of the last century.

With their radical actions that emphasized the performative body, Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl and Rudolf Schwarzkogler played a major role in this paradigm shift in the crucial 1960s. From 1960 onwards, these artists went through a process in which the painted picture was subjected to a «test» in the truest sense of the word. In the art objects and especially in the actions, representation is replaced by a vehement turn to values ??that can be directly perceived by the senses. Blood at Nitsch, scrap and waste at Muehl, white paint mud and objects as symbol carriers at Brus and Schwarzkogler also deconstruct the compositionally controlled image.