Arnulf Rainer

ARNULF RAINER

(b. December 8th, 1929, in Baden, Austria)

Chronology
Mid-1940s: Began his career as a self-taught painter.
1947-9: Attends Staatsgewerbeschule at Villach, and becomes interested in surrealism.

1948-51: Creates surrealistic drawings of underwater scenes and mystical forms.
1950: Founds the Hundsgruppe (dog group) together with Ernst Fuchs, Arik Brauer, and Josef Mikl. Also begins 20 year exploration of
etching, drypoint, lithography and screenprinting.
1951: Introduced to gestural abstractionism in Paris, via the works of Georges Mathieu, Jackson Pollock, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Wols.
1951-4: Creates Blind Drawings series, wherein he studies optical disintegration and the destruction of form, replacing pictorial composition and
illusion with the immediacy of accidentally encountered textures. He begins to use blackenings, overpaintings, and maskings of illustrations
and photographs; a style which goes on to dominate the rest of his career. His works during this period were also influenced by Vienna
Actionism, and included both body art and painting while under the influence of drugs.
1953-9: Creates works based on mathematical principles and proportionality, largely in back and white photographs.
1956: Becomes concerned with religious theories and practices, which becomes an ongoing theme throughout his career. His focii on the
subject lie largely on the relationships between life and death, the physical and the spiritual, and redemption and sacrifice.
1978-80: Receives the Grand Austrian State Prize, and is the Austrian representative at the Venice Biennale, twice.
1981-95: Holds a deeply ironic professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
1993: The Arnulf Rainer Museum opens in New York City.
Current: His works are shown in the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Summary
Arnulf Rainers work draws both from his experience

as a self-taught painter, and from his twenty year
exploration into etching, drypoint, lithography and
screen-printing techniques. Due to his diverse
background, many of his works are multimedia in
nature. Whats more, his work is also highly gestural,
abstracted, and surreal. In order to create his desired
effect, Rainer often uses blackening, overpainting, and
the masking of illustrations and photographs.
Rainers earlier work includes body art, and painting

while under the influence of drugs, as well as studies
of mathematical principles. The majority of his later
work, however, focuses on breaking taboos against
what is ugly, absurd or instinctually unpleasant.
Common themes in his later work include religious
theories and practices, and the relationships between
life and death, the physical and the spiritual, and
redemption and sacrifice.
Over the course of his career, his work has helped to

set the standards for how representational abstract
work is defined.
Untitled
(1969-74)
Bibliography
Rainer, Arnulf, and Andrea Madesta. Arnulf Rainer. Kln: Snoeck, 2009.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Gu Rombold. Arnulf Rainer: Pflanzenberzeichnungen : Galerie Grner. Linz: Landesverlag, 1986.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Ingried Brugger. Arnulf Rainer, Gegen. Bilder: Retrospektive Zum 70. Geburtstag. Wien: Edition Minerva, 2000.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Peter Weiermair. Arnulf Rainer: Retrospective 1948-2000. Torino: Hopefulmonster, 2001.
Rainer, Arnulf, Roswitha Straihammer, and Austria Baden. Arnulf Rainer: The Beginning Is Always the Hardest: Early Works 1949-1961. Kln: DuMont, 2009.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Rudi Fuchs. Arnulf Rainer: Even Before Language. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers/Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2000.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Samuel Beckett. Hiroshima: Group of 57 Works. Bochum: MBochum, Galerie Fur Film, Foto, Neue Konkrete Kunst Und Video, 1982.
Rainer, Arnulf, and Werner Hofmann. Totenmasken. Salzburg: Residenz Verlag, 1985.
"RAINER UNIVERSALIS." Arnulf Rainer Museum. Accessed April 25, 2015. http://www.arnulf-rainer-museum.at/en/.
Severin, Ingrid. "Arnulf Rainer." Tate.org. Accessed April 25, 2015. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/arnulf-rainer-1813.
Severin, Ingrid. "Arnulf Rainer - The Collection." MoMA.org. 2009. Accessed April 25, 2015. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4792.
The Works of
Arnulf Rainer
Untitled
(1969-74)
Head of the Diver (Deny Your Birth)
Kopf des Tauchers (Verweigert eure Geburt)
(Lithograph on paper, 1950)
Christus
(Charcoal, watercolor, gouache, ink, and oilstick on paper, 1969)
Untitled
(Watercolor, oil and charcoal on photograph, 1970)
Untitled
(Oilstick on gelatin silver print, 1969-74)
Untitled
(Photogravure, etching and drypoint, 1974)
Bundle in Face
(1974)
Barrier
(1974-5)
Untitled (Death Mask)
(Oil pastel and photograph on paper, 1978)
Untitled (Death Mask)
(Oil pastel and photograph on paper, 1978)
Fra Angelico Christus
(Oilstick, crayon, and colored inks on a photograph, 1985)
Depth Obscured (Vertiefung Mit Bewlkung)
(Co-created by Gnter Brus. Drypoint and photogravure, 1985-6)
Schleierbild
(1998-9)
Finger Painting
(Glue-water color and oil paint on sign carton, 1997)
A Presentation By:
+Troy Beglinger

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ARNULF RAINER

(b. December 8th, 1929, in Baden, Austria)

1947-9: Attends Staatsgewerbeschule at Villach, and becomes interested in surrealism.

1948-51: Creates surrealistic drawings of underwater scenes and mystical forms.

1993: The Arnulf Rainer Museum opens in New York City.

Arnulf Rainers work draws both from his experience

Rainers earlier work includes body art, and painting

Over the course of his career, his work has helped to

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