| GÜNTER BRUS: poetry of the illuminant and surgery of signs "pictures-poems" works from 1970 - 1999 | |||||||||||||
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April 13th - June 17th 2000 | |||||||||||||
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Günter Brus Leuchtstoffpoesie und Zeichenchirurgie (poetry of the illuminant and surgery of signs) 1998/99 29,8 x 21 cm mixed media on paper Short View List of Exhibits Biography |
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Günter Brus belongs to the great, highly original and consistent draughtsmen of Europe. His parables of human existence, often recorded in cycles, are based on an inquisitorial style, which defines both powerfully and sensitively subjects and objects. In the conjunction of image and text, Günter Brus develops a fire of ideas against the associative laziness of accustomed approaches and views. (Peter Baum) This retrospective exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Brus' picture-poems in Austria. In the 1960s the artist became - due to his "Aktionen" (Actions) - the "most hated Austrian", in his own words. In 1965, he provoked the public with his "Vienna Walk", when he walked through Vienna's inner city painted in white from top to toe, optically split into two parts by a black line. Three years later, he caused even more of an outcry with his "Body Analysis" during the "Art and Revolution" event at the University of Vienna in 1968. As a consequence of the latter action, he was arrested and sentenced for the "offence of degradation of Austrian symbols" and for the"infringement of causing public offence of morality and shamefacedness". Günter Brus fled Austria, together with his family, to avoid imprisonment and went to Berlin, where he continued his actions. In 1970, he ended this period of his work, which had concentrated on his body as a medium, with the action "Tensile Test". In the same year Brus writes: "A tensile test of the nerves means a sudden change of direction, an abrupt cessation of an on-going action". In 1971 he published his first literary-artistic book "Irrwisch" (Flibbertigibbet). Since the early 1970s the picture-poems have become the Brus' preferred way of expression. The term "Bild-Dichtung" to describe his text/picture combinations was only developed at the end of the '70s. Before that he called his works "illuminated manuscripts" in reference to his idol William Blake and his "Illuminated Books". The term defines perfectly the new genre developed by Brus: the complex interaction of the split between the abstract conceptualism/terminology and the pictorial on the one hand, and the confrontation between pictorial symbols and linguistic signs on the other, form an "association of visibility and mentality" according to the artist. Most of the texts have been written by Brus himself, who shifts permanently between the various literary forms. Beside aphorisms, there are stories, sometimes even fairy tales, often formulated in an intellectually and linguistically playful way. In addition he uses texts by other authors for his picture-poems, e.g. "Friedrich Hölderlin: Der tragische Prozeß in Geschichte und Dichtung" (The Tragic Process in History and Poetry) or "William Blake: Poetische Skizzen" (Poetic Sketches) or the Libretto of Franz Schreker's opera Die Gezeichneten. Brus copies the texts by hand - sometimes they appear as a separate block beside the drawing, sometimes they are drawn over or under, but always they are part of the whole. Günter Brus spent 1998 working on the artistic book "Leuchtstoffpoesie und Zeichenchirurgie" (The Poetry of the Illuminant and the Surgery of Signs), which unites complete stories, text fragments, drawings and picture-poems in a highy complex, interrelated system. Brus comments: "I want to include all areas, which can be optically and linguistically depicted. These run from fairy tales, through abstract efforts to self-inspection both as an outcast and as someone trembling for his existence." Günter Brus has often been classified as being part of the Austrian tradition of Herzmanovsky-Orlando and Alfred Kubin, but he can also be linked to the "visual texts" by Dieter Roth, Jochen Gerz, Raymond Pettibon or Benjamin Weissmann. Common to all of them is a very critical attitude towards the market of books and the arts: after all, works by Brus are equally exhibited hanging on a wall as they are published in books. The exhibition in the Neue Galerie Linz contains some of early works by Günter Brus from his Actionism period (collection of the Neue Galerie Linz), but concentrates on his picture-poems. Amongst these are "Irrwisch" (Flibbertigibbet, 1971), "Weißer Wind" (White Wind, 1981) and the 1998 "Leuchtstoffpoesie und Zeichenchirurgie", which acccompanies the exhibition in an artistic edition (DuMont ATS 300.-). Literature: Johanna Schwanberg, "Dichtbildungen. Günter Brus: Vom Aktionisten zum Bilddichter" in: Parnass, 17.Jhg., Mai - August Heft 2/ 1997, pp. 60 - 65 Johanna Schwanberg, "Im Vollbesitz der Schwäche. Zum 60. Geburtstag von Günter Brus" in: Günter Brus. Werke aus der Sammlung Essl 1960 - 1997, exhibition catalogue, Schömer-Haus, Klosterneuburg 30.9. - 31.12.1998 |
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