Arnulf Rainer

_{Baden bei Wien 1929}

Arnulf Rainer, born in 1929, Baden, constitutes one of the most innovative abstract painters of the 20th century. His main subjects are illustrations of masks, photographs, and the technique of overpainting, whereby he radically transforms an artwork by overpainting its initial form to create a fusion of the old and the new. Rainer attended the Academy of Fine Art and the Academy of Applied Arts only for a few days. His first work is reminiscent of magical realism, whereas the following got inspired by American Expressionism. The inclusion of the physical also played a crucial role in Rainer’s oeuvre as he uses his body (sometimes under the influence of drugs) to paint, which reminds of Viennese Actionism. In the late 1950s, Arnulf Rainer overpainted photographs of himself and recreates distorted self-portraits full of expression. Works from the 1970s deal with motives, such as death, mummies and crucifixion.
Rainer’s works were repeatedly shown at the Biennial Venice and documenta Kassel. A permanent selection of works is shown in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich as well as in the Arnulf Rainer Museum, Baden, and retrospectives took place in the Museum of the 20th century, Vienna, the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.