Farewell to Hermann Nitsch, father of Viennese Actionism

Hermann Nitsch (Vienna, 1938), the artist who became famous for his installations and performances made from the blood of slaughtered animals and naked bodies, has died at the age of 83. The Austrian sculptor and painter died on April 18 in a hospital in Mistelbach, Austria, just on the eve of the opening of the 20th Painting Action event , in conjunction with the Biennale Arte 2022, at the Oficine 800 space at Fondamenta San Biagio on Giudecca Island scheduled from April 19 to July 2022. A major exhibition in which the 20th pictorial action will also be presented, the only pictorial action of the artist whose works are entirely kept in the same collection, and through the exhibition, it will be possible to see the works for the first time in Italy since their creation.

Nitsch, a controversial artist, pursued from the beginning of his artistic life his ideas about Das Orgien Mysterien Theater (the Theater of Orgies and Mysteries), which he would never abandon. 1961 saw the birth of the first Schüttbilder: works created by throwing color and blood on the canvas. He participated in several actions and exhibitions in Vienna, which led to his being charged in various trials and three arrests. In 1966, Nitsch reaches an international breakthrough with an invitation to London for the"Destruction in Art Symposium": the action is interrupted by the police, but from that event come offers from all over the world. Two museums are dedicated to him: in Mistelbach and in Naples, where the Museum Archive Laboratory for Contemporary Arts Hermann Nitsch, a space for documenting and exploring his work, was opened in 2008.

Farewell to Hermann Nitsch, father of Viennese Actionism

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