Zuecca Projects announces a major exhibition of artist Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938, Vienna), presented by Helmut Essl’s private collection in collaboration with Galerie Kandlhofer, featuring 20th painting action, which was originally created and presented at the Wiener Secession, Vienna in 1987.
The exhibition marks the first time that the entire 20th painting action works will be seen together in Italy since their creation and exhibition and is the artist’s only painting action to remain in one collection. The exhibition will be on view from 19 April to 20 July 2022 at Oficine 800 on the island of Giudecca, Venice during the 59th Venice Biennale.
‘To every age, its art. To art, its freedom’ is the motto, formulated by art critic Ludwig Hevesi (1843–1910), that can be read above the portal of the Wiener Secession in Vienna. Only a few artists have tested the boundaries of freedom so constantly as Hermann Nitsch — and have been harassed and persecuted for it so often, including criminal charges, protests and threats. Despite all resistance, he hung on to his idea of a fusion of all the arts and stands now as a monolithic figure in 20th century art history. With his ‘Orgies Mysteries Theatre’, he created a total work of art for all the senses; he expanded the traditional parameters of painting and theatre; he brought the cultic, which is located at the beginning of art’s evolution, back into contemporary art; and he blended art with life.
Hermann Nitsch was a pioneering artist of Viennese Actionism whose painting is positioned at the start of his action art. On November 18, 1960, influenced by Art Informel, he carried out his first action art, in which the painting no longer depicts anything outside the picture and rather represents pure colour, direct gesture, and compacted time. His painting shows in a nutshell ‘the visual grammar of the actions on a picture surface’.
The works of the 20th painting action in the Wiener Secession reveal impressively their genesis that took place between ‘unleashed outbreaks of fury and delicate gestures’. We are immersed in a pictorial, actionist environment in which the basic constants of his work spread out visually, located between the momentary and the eternal, the dynamically moving and the contemplatively calm, the real and the symbolic, between purity and defilement, excessive demands and reflection.
With the large-format poured painting (5 x 20 m) on the front wall, the large splatter painting (10 x 10m) lying on the ground, and numerous smaller splatter and poured paintings flanking them, a space-filling panorama is created, illustrating like no other in condensed form the essence of Nitsch’s painting as an integral component of his ‘Orgies Mysteries Theatre’ conceived in a synaesthetic manner.
Nitsch declared: “I wanted to show how the spilling, squirting, smearing, and splashing of red-coloured liquid can evoke a sensorily intense arousal in the viewer, inviting sensorily intense sensations”. As part of his comprehensively conceived ‘Orgies Mysteries Theatre’, the painting action is intended to trigger in the public a heightened experience of sensory reality, ideally leading to reflection on one’s own existence.
The renewed integration of all the works from the 20th painting action in the historical space of the Oficine 800 on the island of Giudecca not only enables a recapitulation of his most important works; it also allows Hermann Nitsch’s artistic ideas located between the ecstatic and the contemplative to be re-traced and re-experienced.
Hermann Nitsch, 20th painting action
Vienna 1987 – Venice 2022
Oficine 800, Fondamenta S. Biagio, Venice
Opening: April 19, 2022
On View: April 19 – July 20, 2022
Wednesday to Monday, 10 am – 6 pm
Closed Tuesdays. Entrance free of charge
Accessible By: Vaporetto stop “Palanca”, lines 4.1/4.2 or 2
Made possible by Helmut Essl and Hermann Nitsch
Organised by Zuecca Projects and Galerie Kandlhofer
With the kind support of the Hermann Nitsch Foundation
Hermann Nitsch is represented by Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer and Pace Gallery
Discover: www.zueccaprojects.org
