Hermann Nitsch

Galleria Arte per Tutti, Venice

Private Collection

Acquired from the above by the present owner

• Powerful large-scale piece from a key figure of Viennese Actionism
• Highly expressive and physical mixed-media work, combining painting with performance
• Striking use of black pigment adds visual drama and underscores Nitsch’s emotionally charged late work

Created in 2005, this large-scale mixed media work exemplifies the visceral and ritualistic nature of Hermann Nitsch’s practice, closely aligned with the principles of his Orgien-Mysterien-Theater (Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries). The artist is a central figure of Viennese Actionism, sought to evoke emotional catharsis through the synthesis of painting, performance, and spiritual symbolism.

Applied with pronounced physicality, the work’s gestural fields of colour on a dual support consisting of paper mounted on wood recall both the immediacy of Action Painting and the structured intensity of ritual procedure. The concentrated use of black pigment plays a central visual and compositional role. As Nitsch once remarked, “I like black a lot. There are many painters who say that ‘black is the king of color.” (Hermann Nitsch citied in: Paul Laster, “I Think Art Is a Way of Intensity. Interview with Hermann Nitsch,” Interview, Artpulse Magazine, 2015, online.)

Rather than serving purely as contrast, the black functions as a zone of formal compression. It simultaneously draws in and obstructs the viewer’s gaze, appearing both absorptive and impenetrable. This tension between attraction and resistance establishes a visual intensity that defines the work’s surface.

The work does not depict a traditional subject. Instead, it documents a process, presenting the residue of an event shaped by performative gesture and material encounter. In this sense, the painting functions as a site of accumulation rather than representation and offers a direct record of Nitsch’s ongoing engagement with painting as action.