Arnulf Rainer (born 8 December 1929) is an Austrian painter noted for his abstract informal art. Rainer was born in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. During his early years, Rainer was influenced by

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. In 1950, he founded the ''Hundsgruppe'' (''dog group'') together with Ernst Fuchs,

Arik Brauer Arik Brauer (; 4 January 1929 – 24 January 2021) was an Austrian painter, printmaker, poet, dancer, singer-songwriter, stage designer, architect, and academic teacher. Brauer, from a family of Jewish emigrants, grew up in Vienna under the N ...

, and Josef Mikl. After 1954, Rainer's style evolved towards ''Destruction of Forms'', with blackenings, overpaintings, and maskings of

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

s and

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

s dominating his later work. He was close to the ''Vienna Actionism'', featuring

body art Body art is art in which the artist uses their human body as the primary medium.Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, Oxford University, p. 88 Emerging from the context of Conceptual Art during the 1970s, Body art may include performanc ...

and painting under the influence of drugs. He painted extensively on the subject of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

such as it relates to the nuclear bombing of the Japanese city and the inherent political and physical fallout. In 1978, he received the

Grand Austrian State Prize The Grand Austrian State Prize () is a decoration given annually by Austria to an artist for exceptional work. The recipient must be an Austrian citizen with a permanent residence in Austria. It was originally created in 1950 by then education mi ...

. In the same year, and in 1980, he became the Austrian representative at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. From 1981 to 1995, Rainer held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

- the same place where he aborted his own studies after three days, unsatisfied. His works are shown in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden Austria and the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

. As the culmination of the appraisal of his work, the Arnulf Rainer Museum opened in New York City in 1993. His works have also continuously been shown at the European Cultural Centre's palazzos in Venice during the Biennale since 2011. In the same year, he published the work ''Unfinished into Death'' () with the same organisation.ARNULF RAINER
UNFINISHED INTO DEATH
#05- DeLuxe Editi - Rainer- Arnulf - Jongh- Karlyn de - Sarah Gold - Luiscius Books

References

External links

Arnulf Rainer Museum
Baden
Arnulf Rainer at the Museum of Modern Art. MoMa - The Collection
New York

Paris
Arnulf Rainer at the Galerie m Bochum
Bochum {{DEFAULTSORT:Rainer, Arnulf 1929 births Living people Austrian modern painters 20th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters 21st-century Austrian painters 21st-century Austrian male artists Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin People from Baden bei Wien Academic staff of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Theodor Körner Prize recipients Austrian contemporary artists 20th-century Austrian male artists