Hermannn Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch, now 82 years old, is one of the best-known artists of the post-war period.

When Nitsch founded "Viennese Actionism" in 1962 together with his artist colleagues Mühl, Brus and Schwarzkolger, he laid the foundation for his later work. Today, his work encompasses music, theatre and drawing in addition to painting. His Orgien-Mysterien-Theater, which he created, picks up the viewer in the depths of himself. The world is grasped with all the senses: Smell, touch, hearing and looking go hand in hand and Nitsch himself directs all these senses to this day.

In the bechter kastowsky galerie paintings are exhibited that were created last year. With an energy Nitsch distributes, pours and moves the paint onto a rough jute canvas. The painting process is visible and comes directly into the viewer's focus. In this way, works are created in veritable painting orgies that pay powerful homage to colour and sensual intoxication. Sometimes the paint runs across the canvas, letting chance take over, before the overlying layers are applied with a powerful gesture. Nitsch literally reaches into the paint bucket and thus breathes life into the individual picture.

Influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzche, Far Eastern philosophy, psychoanalysis, the spirit of the wine god Dionysus and the deep roots of Christian Catholicism, an oeuvre emerges that wants to reveal nothing more than sensuality.

Initially despised as an enemy of the state and later awarded the Austrian Cross of Merit, Nitsch is today one of the most authentic figures in the art world. His works testify to a power and an urgency for sublime admiration that can only be found in a few areas of art.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the Albertina in Vienna dedicated a major retrospective to Hermann Nitsch, his museum in Naples paid tribute to the painter, and all over the world, tributes were paid to him and his work.

This anniversary has given Nitsch new strength and a new, grandiose cycle has been created, which takes an exciting direction through the use of delicate pastel colours. It is these powerful paintings that will now be on display at Poststrasse 48 in Schaan from 18 February. Directly from his "Schüttboden", as he calls his studio in Prinzendorf Castle, Lower Austria, the works were brought to Liechtenstein to show a new artist who, even with this series, always puts sensuality first alongside catharsis.
"Art is always a struggle" - the victory over it is a joyful and bright work of old age with the aspiration of contemplation, which still shows many paths. If the viewer allows the work to be encountered, an aura of its own emerges, strong and intense.