Beschreibung:

133 Arnulf Rainer Follow Übermalung mit Ecke (Overpainting with corner) signed 'A. Rainer' lower left; further signed, titled, numbered and dated 'Übermalung mit Ecke, 1959-62, Rainer II' on the reverse acrylic, oil, wax crayon and graphite on canvas 70.5 x 50.5 cm (27 3/4 x 19 7/8 in.) Executed in 1959-1962.
Provenance Private Collection, Vienna Klewan Gallery, Vienna (acquired from the above in 1967) Prelinger Collection, Munich (acquired from the above in 1974) Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich Acquired from the above by the late owner Catalogue Essay As the founder of Art Informel in Austria, Arnulf Rainer’s paintings were powerful and gestural. He drew and painted over self-portraits, paintings and photographs by other contemporary artists. In 1978, Rainer represented Austria at the Venice Biennale, and in the same year, he was awarded the Great Austrian National Prize. In 2009, the Arnulf Rainer Museum opened in his hometown, Baden, Austria. By constantly re-working his own compositions and overpainting works by other artists, Rainer challenges the notion of completion in his work, making art that is destructive yet creative at the same time: ‘Even today I am still correcting these pictures, time and time again, to achieve a total darkening, although I forgot long ago what used to be underneath. I prefer to work on a paint-over of a paint-over. It was never my intention to destroy, only to make complete’ (Arnulf Rainer quoted in Arnulf Rainer Early Work , exh. cat., Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, 2017, p. 171). Using a variety of mediums and unconventional methods, Rainer’s artistic practice has been informed by Surrealism, dreams, primal forces, and mythology. He uses passport photobooths for self-portraits, paints blindfolded with his feet or sometimes even with his entire body. Fuelled by obsession, his explosive compositions are infused with palpable energy. Rainer’s ‘overpaintings’, developed in the 1950s, eventually led him to experiment with blind drawing that brought him into contact with Viennese Actionism — the movement famous for its emphasis on raw, physical energy that engages the viewer with an intense sensational experience. Although not a member of the Viennese Actionism group, Rainer is often linked to artists within that group such as Hermann Nitsch due to his expressive, performative approach, and the violent imagery of his work. The following selection of works, executed throughout the earlier days of Rainer’s career, offer an insight to the development in his artistic practice from the monochrome paintings to his overpainted photographs. The late 1950s to early 1960s marked a transitional phase in Rainer’s career where he started to create paintings with thick layers of paint that covered almost the entire canvas, often in black: ‘When in the early sixties I did not know how to go on with my improvements, I created coloured rest corners, thus jettisoning my own principles. Afterwards, it has become more dear to me, and to my mind this ‘reactionary’ phase actually opened the way to overpainting (Arnulf Rainer quoted in Arnulf Rainer Early Work , exh. cat., Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, 2017, p. 171). Rainer’s ‘rest corner’ paintings such as Übermalung mit Ecke (Overpainting with corner) are usually painted and re-worked over the course of many years: ‘Today, being preoccupied with other artistic problems, I continue working on these pieces — at least the ones I still own — with an average of one brush stroke a month. Until my demise they will continue to change considerably, i.e. they will grow denser and denser, until only small patches of white remain, edges or corners, perhaps not even these’ (Arnulf Rainer quoted in Arnulf Rainer Early Work , exh. cat., Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, 2017, p. 171). Upon close observation, hints of blue, green and red peek through from behind the black at the top right corner, hinting at the once existing colourful underpainting that Rainer gradually covered. The intentional blank corners of these paintings leave the composition open and unfinished, which suggest an artistic practice that is an ‘inchoate process that defies completion’ ( Arnulf Rainer Retrospektive , exh. cat., MMKK – Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Cologne, 2008, p. 20). The presence of authorship