Contemporary Art: Hermann Nitsch @ Marc Strauss Gallery, New York

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Hermann Nitsch is an ambitious artist with a wild history (artnews). The Austrian became famous with his ritualistic performance art, most prominently “The Orgien Mysterien Theater" and made headline with "Dionysian performances are replete with religious sacrifices, mock crucifixion, blood, entrails, robes, dance and nude participants" (nitsch). Nitsch indulged into pagan ceremonies with a lot of sex & violence. In 1962 he cruzified a slaugthered lamb in the name of art.

The ambitous Marc Strauss Gallery on 299 Grand Street, New York`s unofficial borderline between the Lower East Side and Chinatown,  has now an exhibiton with works by the master - a survey of three decades of painting (through October 18, 2015  marcstraus). I didn´t see any nudes there, instead a series of powerful paintings.

I really enjoyed the majestic monochrome work. Here you can see my farovites from the show, as usal a very subjective selection. The tiny images on your screen can gvie you just a weak impression of the magnificents works. If you are near New York you might enjoy Nitsch´s work by yourself. But the pictures speak for themselves.

The selection starts with "Schüttbild", 1983, oil on canvas.


                                    WOW!

The following paintings also are called "Schüttbild". Schütten means in German "pouring", maybe Nitsch refers to the technique he used for creating these works. They look indead like he had poured color onto canvas. But the results are WOW!

Enjoy!