Arnulf Rainer

Born in 1929 in Baden by Vienna, Rainer is arguably one of the most influential Austrian artists today. The range of media he works through spans from painting, graphics, or photography, collages and artists’ books, to body and performance art. Rainer, like no other artist, embodies the rebellious spirit of post-war art. Quitting the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna after a few days of studies, he has followed his own artistic path. Firstly, at the turn of the 40s and 50s, as a co-founding member of the artistic group Hundsgruppe, he executed a series of Surrealism-influenced drawings.
However, Rainer made an international name for himself with his later activity, especially the iconoclastic series “Overpaintings” (1953-65), in which he produced own pieces by painting over other artists’ works. Throughout the decades, Rainer immersed himself in the subject of mental disorders and psychedelia, which led to his performances under drug use, and involvement in the Viennese Actionism. In the following decade, the artist shifted once again, returning to the methods of appropriation art by executing a series of re-photographed pictures. Eventually, he was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna (1981-95), where he lectured until his retirement.
Always surrounded by both broad critical approbation and disapproval, Rainer partook in a number of the most significant exhibitions of the day, including the Documenta in Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982) and Venice Biennale (1978, 1995, 2007, 2011, 2013). In the 90s, the museum carrying his name was opened in New York (1993). Subsequently, the artist has been portrayed in the documentary “Arnulf Rainer – Sternsucher” (1994), directed by Herbert Brödl. Currently the individual display of his work is shown in the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen (until September 2015). Currently his work is on view at the Leopold museum in Vienna (until September 2023), the museum Gugging in Austria (until September 2023) and the Kallmann museum Ismaning in Germany (until June 2023).