Hermann Nitsch. Drawings

Press release

23.10.2024

Image Credits

Duration

25.10.2024 - 23.02.2025

Opening

24.10.2024 7pm

Press event

23.10.2024 11am - 12pm

Place of the press event

Neue Galerie Graz, BRUSEUM, BRUSEUM

Curators

Roman Grabner

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With the drawings of Hermann Nitsch, the BRUSEUM presents an aspect of his work that did not often receive the necessary attention due to the opulence of his actions and sheer dimensions of his ‘spilled paintings’. Even before Nitsch began to work in 1957 on the ideas for his Orgies Mysteries Theater (Orgien Mysterien Theater), he had already engaged with the subjects of suffering, crucifixion, death and resurrection. Among his earliest works are his drawings on Rembrandt’s Crucifixion. Since the end of the 1950s he had been working on the design of a gigantic drama spread over several days. The basic aim of the broadly conceived structure of his Orgies Mysteries Theater is the intensification of lived experience and as a result a heightened sense of joy in existence as the mysticism of being. In this art assumes the functions of religion. Nitsch’s entire oeuvre can be seen as a descent into the depths, for which reason it need not surprise us that his drawings from the 1960s on represent fantastic, subterranean architectural complexes, entities that reproduce entire bodies or make reference to them, and which allow us to discern both his all-encompassing thoughts and his precise signature in drawing form. Nitsch merges the ‘natural phenomenon that is man’ illustratively with proliferating architecture. In this, he not infrequently adapts Christian iconography.

Drawings

Hermann Nitsch, architectural drawing, 1974, (detail), Flatz Collection

Photo: UMJ/Christian Schmaranz © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Hermann Nitsch, Architekturzeichnung, 1974

Privat © Bildrecht Wien, 2023

Golden Love, 1967 Collage, coloured pencil and gouache on paper, affixed to canvas, 158 x 323

diethARdT collection Photo: Manfred Thumberger © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Architectural drawing, 1981 Biros and coloured pencil on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm

collection Flatz Photo: Nikola Milatovic © Bildrecht, Wien 2024

The Last Supper, 1976-1979 Pencil and biros on paper, affixed to canvas, 152 x 368 cm

Sammlung Hall, mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Hall Art Foundation Foto: Reto Rodolfo Pedrini © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Design of an underground city, 1974 Biros on nine sheets of paper glued together, 89 x 63 cm

Private collection Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Hermann Nitsch, The Last Supper, 1983

Private collection, photo: Galerie Sommer © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

untitled, 1959-61, Oil crayon on paper, 22,5 x 29,9 cm

NITSCH FOUNDATION, Photo: UMJ/Christian Schmaranz © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

Untitled, 2020 Oil crayon on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm

Werner Trenker Collection, Wiener Neustadt Photo: Nikola Milatovic © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Schmerzensantlitz, 1981 Biros and oil crayon on paper, 9 parts, 89 x 63 cm

Private collection Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

City for the white bull, 1970 Biros on paper, 29.8 x 21.2 cm

Gallery Michael Werner, Berlin, London and New York Photo: Nikola Milatovic © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Curtain to the crypt of the OM Theatre, 1962 Red biros on paper, 15 x 21.2 cm

Gallery Michael Werner, Berlin, London and New York Photo: Nikola Milatovic © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

Exhibition views

Curator Roman Grabner in front of "Golden Love" 1967 by Hermann Nitsch

Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

[Translate to English:] Exhibition view, “Hermann Nitsch. Drawings“

[Translate to English:] Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

Exhibition view, “Hermann Nitsch. Drawings“

Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

Exhibition view, “Hermann Nitsch. Drawings“

Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024

Exhibition view, “Hermann Nitsch. Drawings“

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