Arnulf Rainer

(*1929)

Austria – Contemporary Art – Surrealism, Expressionism – Arnulf Rainer

Vita:

As a schoolboy, Arnulf Rainer decided to become an artist. Although he was forced by his teacher to draw faces and figures, he avoided this and mainly painted tanks and airplanes in drawing lessons. This was also the reason why he had to leave school in the end. After changing schools, he graduated from high school in Villach in 1949. Subsequently, he passed the entrance exam for the Academy of Applied Arts. He finished this training on the first day due to an artistic discussion with one of his professors. After this short adventure, he decided to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He also broke off this training after only three days, as his art was classified as degenerate in the painting class. After numerous study trips, including a scholarship in Paris together with Maria Lassnig, he created his own style. Arnulf Rainer began to paint over pictures. As expected, this type of art was not only received positively. In 1961, the artist was even sentenced for overpainting an award-winning picture. He not only experiments with the forms of the picture but also with his mental state of mind and also paints while consuming drugs and alcohol. In addition to numerous exhibitions, he was also pleased about a large number of awards. Arnulf Rainer received, among other things, the Austrian State Prize, in 1978 he represented Austria at the Venice Biennale and received the prize from the International Center of Photography in New York. Since 2009 his work can also be admired in the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden near Vienna.

Work:

Rainer Arnulf’s oeuvre is very versatile. After his initial devotion to surrealism, he changed his work together with Maria Lassnig after his trip to Paris. From then on he devoted himself increasingly to the Informel. In the 1950s he began to paint over his own and other people’s pictures. In addition to pictures, he also gave photos a new character. Initially, his work was viewed with great skepticism and criticized. Over time, however, at the end of the 1950s painters, including Sam Francis, Victor Vasarely, Emilio Vedova and Georges Mathieu, made their works available to Arnulf Rainer for overpainting. In addition to his art, which was becoming increasingly popular at the time, the artist also dealt with photography and foot and finger painting. In short, his work revolves primarily around confrontations and forms of expression. Arnulf Rainer’s later work was shaped by photography, but as an artist it was important to him to remain faithful to painting. “Critically, with hostility to everything, I manage to correct or paint over. Only now do I dare to destroy, because something better will grow out of it. Fixed but indistinct ideas fill me, differentiate and concretize only during the drawing and pass into new ones. „, Describes Arnulf Rainer his own art.