Arnulf Rainer

Arnulf Rainer is best known to the general public for his abstract and informel art. In the early years of his career he was influenced by Surrealism, after which his style evolved towards the destruction of form, with the blackening, overpainting and masking of illustrations and photographs that dominate his later work. He was very close to Viennese Actionism, characterised by body art and painting under the effect of drugs. He painted at length the relation between life and death, concentrating largely on the subject of Hiroshima in relation to the nuclear bombing of the Japanese city and its political and physical repercussions. He has exhibited his work at major international events, such as the Venice Biennale (1980 and 2011), the Biennale of San Paolo (1996) and Documenta 7 (1982). His works are displayed in the most important museums in the world, including the MOMA and the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the collections of which include numerous works acquired over time, as do the Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 1993 the Arnulf Rainer Museum was opened in New York, and he also has a museum dedicated to him in Baden. The Albertina Museum honors the artist with two comprehensive retrospectives in 2014 and 2019.