WAM Vienna Actionism Museum: Opening exhibition "What is Viennese Actionism?"

The WAM presents the extensive work of the four representatives of Viennese Actionism: Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler between 1957 and 1973. The opening exhibition will provide an initial overview of the socio-political and cultural significance of Viennese Actionism.

One of Austria's most important art movements after 1945 is being permanently honored for the first time with the founding of the new Vienna Actionism Museum (WAM). The museum is the result of an initiative by private collectors. With the acquisition of the Friedrichshof Collection in 2022, consisting of one of the largest holdings of works of Viennese Actionism, Reza Akhavan, Jürgen Boden, Daniel Jelitzka, Philipp Konzett, Dirk Ströer and Christian Winkler committed themselves to preserving this art-historically significant collection as a unit in the long term and transferring it to a museum.
The WAM is intended to demonstrate the cultural-historical influence of Viennese Actionism on the development of performative art worldwide. To ensure that the operation of the WAM remains secure in the long term, the initiators are joined by other personalities as financial and idealistic supporters of the museum.

The Collection
The museum will present the extensive holdings of the Viennese Actionism collection in annually changing exhibitions and also place them in relation to contemporary positions. The works are currently being re-inventoried in order to further research this highly complex and radical art movement. The Vienna Actionism Museum's collection, the largest in the world, comprises the diverse oeuvre of the four main protagonists: Günter Brus (born 1938), Otto Muehl (1925-2013), Hermann Nitsch (1938-2022) and Rudolf Schwarzkogler (1940-1969) from 1957-1973. The collection is supplemented by early works by Adolf Frohner and Alfons Schilling, who had a significant influence on the emergence of Viennese Actionism.
The collection, which also contains extensive archive material, is to be made accessible and usable for research purposes. It consists of collages, screen prints, posters, photographs and film works. The museum will present the collection to an interested public in both permanent and temporary exhibitions, supplemented by international loans and contemporary contributions.
The WAM aims to become a central and permanent presentation venue for Viennese Actionism in the international art and museum world. Its own range of exhibitions is also enriched by collaborations with the Nitsch Museum, among others, and loans from international museums and institutions.

The activists
Günter Brus
Born on September 27, 1938 in Ardning in Styria, Brus is the only living artist of Viennese Actionism.
As a graduate of the Graz School of Applied Arts, Brus realized his first action in 1964 with "Ana", in which the human body was used as artistic material. This marked the transition from the informal to the so-called "self-paintings". These were followed in 1965 by the "self-mutilations", in which Brus used his own body as artistic material. His sensational "Vienna Walk" took place on July 5, 1965. In 1966, he took part in the "Destruction in Art Symposium" in London. After Brus was sentenced to six months in prison for the "Art and Revolution" action in 1968, he fled to Berlin in 1969. His last and most radical action, "Zerreissprobe", took place in Munich in 1970. He then returned to drawing and his lyrical work.

Günter Brus, Self-painting II, photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich © WAM Vienna Actionism Museum

Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl was born on June 16, 1925 in Grodnau in Burgenland. In the summer of 1944, Muehl was sent to the front. His traumatic experiences during the war left a lasting impression on him. In 1952, he graduated as a teacher of German and history and began studying art education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His first solo exhibition took place at the Junge Generation Gallery in 1960. From 1964, Muehl concentrated on the realization of his actionist work, with which he wanted to remove taboos from socially repressed aspects of human nature through the use of human bodies and the staging of sexuality, death and birth. Muehl is one of the participants in "Art and Revolution" on June 7, 1968 at the University of Vienna.
In 1972, he founded the action-analytical organization, the AAO Kommune am Friedrichshof. In 1988, the Commune at Friedrichshof disbanded. Muehl is charged with the sexual abuse and rape of children and young people.
In 1991, he is sentenced to seven years in prison "for immorality offenses, fornication with minors up to and including rape, violations of the Narcotics Act and witness tampering". While in prison, he created an extensive body of paintings and literary works. Otto Muehl dies in Portugal in 2013.

Otto Muehl, Material Action No. 19, Bodybuilding, 1965, Photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich © WAM Wiener Aktionismus Museum

Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch was born in Vienna on August 29, 1938. From 1957 to 1957, he studied at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. At the age of almost twenty, he developed the comprehensive concept for his Gesamtkunstwerk of the Orgien Mysterien Theater, which was to define his life's work. In this he wanted to address all aspects of life, including the painful, painful and violent ones, in order to bring them into an artistic form.
In 1960, his first painting actions took place in front of an audience at the Technical Museum in Vienna. In 1962, real animal blood was used as artistic material for the first time. From 1960 to 1979, Nitsch used only the color red in his paintings. At the end of the 1960s, he developed the color theory of the Orgien Mysterien Theater.
In 1971, Prinzendorf Castle became the central venue for the Orgien Mysterien Theater.
From 1975, the first 24-hour play takes place in Prinzendorf. In 1984 a three-day play and in 1998 the six-day play. Nitsch realizes a total of 160 actions and 96 painting actions. In 2005, Nitsch realized his 122nd action at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
In his late work, Nitsch concentrates more on painting again, in addition to further developing his music and action theater. In 2021, he staged a large-scale painting action for the Bayreuth Festival's "Walküre". On April 18, 2022, he dies in Mistelbach after a serious illness.

Hermann Nitsch, 4th action, 1963, photo: Ludwig Hoffenreich © WAM Wiener Aktionismus Museum

Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Rudolf Schwarzkogler was born in Vienna on November 13, 1940. From 1957, he studied at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna, which he left in 1961 without graduating. In 1963 he did his military service. In 1964, he took part in Otto Muehl's material action "Luftballonkonzert" (Balloon Concert) in his basement studio on Perinetgasse in Vienna. In 1965, he was an actor in Hermann Nitsch's 7th and 8th actions. On February 6, 1965, he carried out his first own action, "Hochzeit" (Wedding).
Between 1968 and 1969, the artist became increasingly involved with the spiritual teachings and practices of the East. In this context, he undertook excessive fasting cures without medical supervision, which put him under great physical and psychological strain. Schwarzkogler became increasingly preoccupied with the relativity of the perceptible.
On June 20, 1969, Schwarzkogler falls out of the window of his apartment and immediately succumbs to his injuries.
March 15, 2024 to January 31, 2025
www.wieneraktionismus.at