Viennese Actionism
Encyclopedia
The term Viennese Actionism describes a short and violent movement in 20th century art
that can be regarded as part of the many independent efforts of the 1960s to develop "action art
" (Fluxus
, Happening
, Performance
, Body Art
, etc.). Its main participants were Günter Brus, Otto Mühl
, Hermann Nitsch
and Rudolf Schwarzkogler
. As "actionists", they were active between 1960 and 1971. Most have continued their artistic work independently from the early 1970s onwards.
Documentation of the work of these four artists suggests that there was no consciously developed sense of a movement or any cultivation of membership status in a "actionist" group. Rather, this name was one applied to various collaborative configurations among these four artists. Malcolm Green
has quoted Hermann Nitsch
's comment, "Vienna Actionism never was a group. A number of artists reacted to particular situations that they all encountered, within a particular time period, and with similar means and results."
art practices. The practice of staging precisely scored "Actions" in controlled environments or before audiences bears similarities to the Fluxus concept of enacting an "event score" and is a forerunner to Performance Art
.
The work of the Viennese Actionists is probably best remembered for the wilful transgressiveness of its naked bodies, destructiveness and violence. Often, brief jail terms were served by participants for violations of decency laws, and their works were targets of moral outrage. In June 1968 Günter Brus began serving a six-month prison sentence for the crime of "degrading symbols of the state", and later fled Austria to avoid a second arrest. Otto Mühl served a one-month prison term after his participation in a public event, "Art and Revolution" in 1968. After his "Piss Action" before a Munich
audience, Mühl became a fugitive from the West German police. Hermann Nitsch served a two week prison term in 1965 after his participation with Rudolph Schwarzkogler in the Festival of Psycho-Physical Naturalism. The "Destruction in Art Symposium", held in London in 1966, marked the first encounter between members of Fluxus and Actionists. It was a landmark of international recognition for the work of Brus, Mühl and Nitsch.
While the nature and content of each artist's work differed, there are distinct aesthetic and thematic threads connecting the Actions of Brus, Mühl, Nitsch and Schwarzkogler. Use of the body as both surface and site of art-making seems to have been a common point of origin for the Actionists in their earliest departures from conventional art practices in the late 50s and early 60s. Brus' "Hand Painting Head Painting" action of 1964, Mühl and Nitsch's "Degradation of a Female Body, Degradation of A Venus" of 1963 are characterized by their efforts to reconceive human bodies as surfaces for the production of art. The trajectories of the Actionists' work suggests more than just a precedent to later performance art
and body art
, rather, a drive toward a totalizing art-practice is inherent in their refusing to be confined within conventional ideas of painting, theatre and sculpture. Mühl's 1964 "Material Action Manifesto
" offers some theoretical framework for understanding this:
A 1967 revision of the same manifesto Mühl wrote:
Brus and Mühl participated in the "Kunst und Revolution" (Art and Revolution) event in Vienna, June 1968, issuing the following proclamation:
participated in the documentation of Actions as early as 1964, producing a body of Actionist related works that stand as historic avant-garde films in their own right for their use of rapid editing. As well, Otto Muehl produced a significant body of Actionist related film work that has been celebrated in Amos Vogel
's Film as a Subversive Art
.
Films of and related to Actionist performance remain available through the Vienna based Sixpack film distributor and the U.S. distribution cooperatives Canyon Cinema and The Film-makers' Coop. In 2005 the Actionist films of Kurt Kren were issued on video by the Austrian publisher INDEX DVD.
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
that can be regarded as part of the many independent efforts of the 1960s to develop "action art
Action art
Action art may refer to:*Action painting, a form of abstract expressionism*Performance art and art intervention...
" (Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
, Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
, Performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
, Body Art
Body art
Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. The most common forms of body art are tattoos and body piercings, but other types include scarification, branding, scalpelling, shaping , full body tattoo and body painting.More extreme body art can involve things such as mutilation...
, etc.). Its main participants were Günter Brus, Otto Mühl
Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl is an Austrian artist, who is best known as one of the co-founders as well as a main participant of Viennese Actionism. In 1972 he founded the Friedrichshof Commune that existed for several years before falling apart in the 1990s...
, Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes.Born in Vienna, Nitsch received training in painting during the time he studied at the Wiener Graphische Lehr-und Versuchanstalt. He is called an "actionist" or a performance artist...
and Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Rudolf Schwarzkogler was an Austrian performance artist closely associated with the Viennese Actionism group that included artists Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, and Hermann Nitsch....
. As "actionists", they were active between 1960 and 1971. Most have continued their artistic work independently from the early 1970s onwards.
Documentation of the work of these four artists suggests that there was no consciously developed sense of a movement or any cultivation of membership status in a "actionist" group. Rather, this name was one applied to various collaborative configurations among these four artists. Malcolm Green
Malcolm Green
Malcolm Green may refer to:*Malcolm Green , British professor of inorganic chemistry*Malcolm Green , Professor of thoracic medicine, Head of the National Heart & Lung Institute...
has quoted Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes.Born in Vienna, Nitsch received training in painting during the time he studied at the Wiener Graphische Lehr-und Versuchanstalt. He is called an "actionist" or a performance artist...
's comment, "Vienna Actionism never was a group. A number of artists reacted to particular situations that they all encountered, within a particular time period, and with similar means and results."
Art and the Politics of Transgression
The work of the Actionists developed concurrently with—but largely independently from—other avant garde movements of the era who shared an interest in rejecting object-based or otherwise commodifiableCommodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....
art practices. The practice of staging precisely scored "Actions" in controlled environments or before audiences bears similarities to the Fluxus concept of enacting an "event score" and is a forerunner to Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
.
The work of the Viennese Actionists is probably best remembered for the wilful transgressiveness of its naked bodies, destructiveness and violence. Often, brief jail terms were served by participants for violations of decency laws, and their works were targets of moral outrage. In June 1968 Günter Brus began serving a six-month prison sentence for the crime of "degrading symbols of the state", and later fled Austria to avoid a second arrest. Otto Mühl served a one-month prison term after his participation in a public event, "Art and Revolution" in 1968. After his "Piss Action" before a Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
audience, Mühl became a fugitive from the West German police. Hermann Nitsch served a two week prison term in 1965 after his participation with Rudolph Schwarzkogler in the Festival of Psycho-Physical Naturalism. The "Destruction in Art Symposium", held in London in 1966, marked the first encounter between members of Fluxus and Actionists. It was a landmark of international recognition for the work of Brus, Mühl and Nitsch.
While the nature and content of each artist's work differed, there are distinct aesthetic and thematic threads connecting the Actions of Brus, Mühl, Nitsch and Schwarzkogler. Use of the body as both surface and site of art-making seems to have been a common point of origin for the Actionists in their earliest departures from conventional art practices in the late 50s and early 60s. Brus' "Hand Painting Head Painting" action of 1964, Mühl and Nitsch's "Degradation of a Female Body, Degradation of A Venus" of 1963 are characterized by their efforts to reconceive human bodies as surfaces for the production of art. The trajectories of the Actionists' work suggests more than just a precedent to later performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and body art
Body art
Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. The most common forms of body art are tattoos and body piercings, but other types include scarification, branding, scalpelling, shaping , full body tattoo and body painting.More extreme body art can involve things such as mutilation...
, rather, a drive toward a totalizing art-practice is inherent in their refusing to be confined within conventional ideas of painting, theatre and sculpture. Mühl's 1964 "Material Action Manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
" offers some theoretical framework for understanding this:
...material action is painting that has spread beyond the picture surface. The human body, a laid table or a room becomes the picture surface. Time is added to the dimension of the body and space.
A 1967 revision of the same manifesto Mühl wrote:
... material action promises the direct pleasures of the table. Material action satiates. Far more important than baking bread is the urge to take dough-beating to the extreme.
Brus and Mühl participated in the "Kunst und Revolution" (Art and Revolution) event in Vienna, June 1968, issuing the following proclamation:
... our assimilatory democracy maintains art as a safety valve for enemies of the state ... the consumer state drives a wave of "art" before itself; it attempts to bribe the "artist" and thus to rehabilitate his revolutionising "art" as an art that supports the state. But "art" is not art. "Art" is politics that has created new styles of communication.
Actionists and Experimental Film in Vienna
Much of the existing moving-image documentation of Viennese Actionist work survives because of strong ties between the Actionists and art/experimental filmmaking of the 1960s. The Austrian filmmaker Kurt KrenKurt Kren
Kurt Kren was an Austrian avantgarde filmmaker. He is best known for his involvement with the Vienna Aktionists and the group of films that resulted.-Biography:...
participated in the documentation of Actions as early as 1964, producing a body of Actionist related works that stand as historic avant-garde films in their own right for their use of rapid editing. As well, Otto Muehl produced a significant body of Actionist related film work that has been celebrated in Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel
Amos Vogel was one of the most influential cineasts in New York. He is best known for his bestselling book Film as a Subversive Art and as the founder of the New York City avantgarde ciné-club Cinema 16 , where he was the first programmer to present films by Roman Polanski, John Cassavetes,...
's Film as a Subversive Art
Film as a Subversive Art
Film as a Subversive Art is a 1974 film history book by Amos Vogel with mini-essays on over 600 films. The book was re-printed with a new foreword and introduction in 2005....
.
Films of and related to Actionist performance remain available through the Vienna based Sixpack film distributor and the U.S. distribution cooperatives Canyon Cinema and The Film-makers' Coop. In 2005 the Actionist films of Kurt Kren were issued on video by the Austrian publisher INDEX DVD.
Further reading
- Von der Aktionsmalerei zum Aktionismus. Wien 1960-1965, Klagenfurt, Ritter-Verlag, 1988.
- Wiener Aktionismus. Wien 1960-1971, Klagenfurt, Ritter-Verlag, 1989.
- Der Wiener Aktionismus und die Österreicher, Klagenfurt, Ritter-Verlag, 1995
- Out of Actions. Actionism, Body Art & Performance 1949-1979 (Exhibition catalogue), Vienna-Stuttgart, MAK/Cantz, 1998.
- Brus Muehl Nitsch Schwarzkogler. Writings of the Viennese Actionists edited and translated by Malcom Green in collaboration with the artists. London, Atlas Press, 1999.
- Oliver Jahraus: Die Aktion des Wiener Aktionismus. Subversion der Kultur und Dispositionierung des Bewußtseins. München, Wilhelm Fink 2001.
- Thomas Dreher: Performance Art nach 1945. Aktionstheater und Intermedia. München, Wilhelm Fink 2001, chapter 2.5, Wiener Aktionismus, p. 163-298.
- Film as a Subversive Art Amos Vogel. New York, Random House, 1974.
- Thomas Eder: Unterschiedenes ist / gut'. Reinhard Priessnitz und die Repoetisierung der Avantgarde. München, Wilhelm Fink 2003, chapter 3, Reinhard Priessnitz und der Wiener Aktionismus, p. 149-192. (ISBN 3770538137)
External links
- The Vienna Actionists
- Ubuweb: The Vienna Actionists Contains video files of Action films by Kurt Kren, Otto Mühl and others. Also contains the complete text of a 2002 interview with Otto Mühl.
- "archives muehl" Official Otto Muehl website
- Orgies Mysteries Theatre Official Hermann Nitsch website
- Hermann Nitsch’ ‘Orgien Mysterien Theater’ – The artist as a high priest? About the relation between art, religion, ritual and reality.
- Bright Lights Film Journal Andrew Grossman, 2002 interview with Otto Mühl as it was originally published.
- Sixpack Film, Vienna - English language site Austrian based film distributor, catalogue includes works of Kurt Kren and Gunter Brus.
- Index DVD - English language site Distributor of Kurt Kren's Action films on video.
- The Film-Makers' Cooperative New York City based distributor of films by Otto Mühl and Kurt Kren.
- Canyon Cinema San Francisco based distributor of films by Kurt Kren.
- Writings of the Vienna Actionists Atlas Press publication edited by Malcolm Green, still available.
- Actionism in Arteseleccion
- Thomas Dreher: Action Theater as Provocation: Grotesque Body Conception in Vienna Actionism/Aktionstheater als Provokation: groteske Körperkonzeption im Wiener Aktionismus (in German)
- http://www.zimmermann-kratochwill.com/download/cmspage/gzk_katalog_082010_web1.pdf 'Breaking Out of the Reality-Asylum: Hermann NItsch and the Orgies Mysteries Theatre', 1998. Essay by Paul Sakoilsky on Nitsch/Actionism and 'the 6-day play'. (2002 re-edit) published, Galerie Zimmerman Krotochwill Catalogue 08/2010.