Hermann Nitsch on display in Venice
An exhibition never seen before in Italy will be held on the Giudecca, which will see the father of Viennese Actionism as the protagonist: the “20th Painting Action”, whose works are part of the private collection of Helmut Essl, will be presented to the public in its entirety.
On the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale of Art, Mint project – non-profit space founded by Alessandro Possati with headquarters on the Giudecca island – dedicates an exhibition to Hermann Nitsch (Vienna, 1938), one of the greatest exponents of Viennese Actionism and one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, showing for the first time in Italy, in its entirety, the 20th pictorial actionor the twentieth pictorial action created and presented by the artist for the Wiener Secession from 1987. It is the only “action” of the artist whose works are part of the same collection, that of Helmut Esland its exhibition at the Zuecca Project is possible thanks to the collaboration with the Galerie Kandlhofer and the support of Hermann Nitsch Foundation. The exhibition, scheduled from 19 April to 20 July 2022, will be open to visitors in the spaces of Oficine 800, also on the Giudecca island.
THE SHARES OF HERMANN NITSCH
Nitsch’s art blends painting and theater, literature and myth, sacred and pagan, in which performance – action – becomes a ritual in which painting is gesture and direct pure color. Influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, by Greek tragedy and by the concept of “total work of art” developed by Richard Wagner, Nitsch in 1957 laid the foundations of what would become his most famous and powerful, demanding and at the same time controversial time, the Theater of orgies and mysteriesperformance in which different forms of art contribute to the realization of a cathartic ritual in which ideas, feelings and moods such as sex and death, eroticism and violence, pleasure and horror are exasperated, using as tools the bodies, the flesh and the blood and inspired by the orgiastic and Dionysian rites of ancient Greece.
THE 20TH PAINTING ACTION BY HERMANN NITSCH AT EXHIBITION IN VENICE
There 20th pictorial action created by Nitsch for the Viennese Secession in 1987 is presented as a pictorial and action environment in which the key concepts of the artist’s research take shape through a large-format painting (5 x 20 meters) placed on the front wall, to which sides are placed sketches of smaller sizes. In the center of the room, on the ground, is a 10 x 10 meter painting, for an environment full of color in all its vigor and violence. “I wanted to show”Nitsch said, “How spills, splashes, smears and splashes of red liquid can evoke intense excitement in the viewer, inviting very strong sensations”.
– Desirée Maida
Venice // from 19 April to 20 July 2022
Hermann Nitsch – 20th Pictorial Action
Workshops 800
Fondamenta S.Biagio
http://www.zueccaprojects.org/
https://www.kandlhofer.com/