The unique picture documents by Christian Skrein, born 1945, provide an insight into the art scene that formed in the sixties. He was as much at home in the unforgettable inner circle of the 1968 generation, which included such personalities as Oswald Wiener, Arnulf Rainer, Walter Pichler, Hermann Nitsch, André Heller and Christian Ludwig Attersee, as he was in the hot spots of high society, which provided him with enough material for his voyeuristic reports.

As an insider, Skrein was highly successful in using his camera to capture the flair of this 68 circle that was revolutionary and insurgent on the one hand, but also grotesque and comical on the other. Such legendary artists from Austria as Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Ernst Fuchs or Arnulf Rainer have found an ideal chronicler in the former press and fashion photographer.

Despite the fact, or perhaps specifically because he had no academic training, he achieved a remarkable ten-year lightening career, which he ended at the age of twenty-six. He began as a photo reporter for Die Bunte, Stern and for Austrian daily papers such as the Bildexpress, Kurier and Die Presse, working his way up to become the youngest advertising and fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. Thanks to his open-mindedness, he was able to make contacts with declared outsiders and artists' cliques. This led to photo documentaries of the Viennese protest scene of that time, such as Rainer's unlawful self-presentation in a fur coat or Ernst Fuchs' face-painting in front of the entrance to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Yet Skrein's portraits of artists are not compositions left up to the chance of snapshots. Rather, the typical poses and situations of the respectively depicted artists has a thoroughly authentic effect.

Skrein's collected photography works from the mythical sixties have been published for the first time in March 2001 in his 128-page book 68. Konfrontationen & Wahrnehmungen. Künstler, Legenden, Fotografien. with about 90 pictures, by the publishing company Verlag Brandstätter. With this documentary picture material, he provides the public with a fascinating look at the specific appearance of the artists' clique of 1968.