Arnulf Rainer

The artist Rainer Arnulf was born in 1928 in Baden, Austria. He studied architecture at the Villach school, then at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Revolutionary in his art and in his life, he gave up several positions and several courses, notably at the Maison d'Education pour Jeunes in Traiskirchen and at the Academy of Applied Art in Vienna. This provocative artist is the co-founder of the revolutionary and surrealist group "Hundsgruppe" practicing body art. His universe, initially fantastic and dark, evolves into tachism, a form of abstract expressionist art. He is also attracted by the current of Art Brut and by appropriation techniques. Indeed, in his series “Übermalungen”, he covers his own works and those of renowned artists such as Van Gogh or Vasarely. In the same process, he will retouch photographs, portraits, and even sacred objects and masks. A museum was erected in his honor in New York in 1993, his works are often exhibited at the Modern Pinacoteca in Munich and also at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.