Günter Brus - Buy or sell works
27 September 1938, Ardning (Austria) – 10 February 2024, Graz (Austria)
Günter Brus is among the most renown and radical representatives of Viennese Actionism. Together with artists like Arthur Mühe, Rudolf Schwarzkogler and Hermann Nitsch he founded the avant-garde movement of Viennese actionism, which emerged in Vienna in the 1960s and was characterised by extremely physical and often taboo-breaking performances and actions.
His early recognised talent for drawing enabled him to attend the School of Applied Arts in Graz and later to study at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he became familiar with Austrian early Expressionism and Abstract Expressionism. The explosive energy of the Informel opened a new perspective for him that transcended the rigid framework of panel painting.
In the 1960s, Brus developed his concept of “Körperanalyse” (body analysis), in which he dealt with elementary, existential experiences and used the human body as a central medium of expression to shock the public. A particularly controversial event was the art action “Aktion Kunst und Revolution” at the University of Vienna in 1968, which ultimately led to his arrest and conviction. To escape a six-month prison sentence, Brus fled into self-imposed exile in West Germany in 1969.
After his last action in 1970, “Zerreißprobe” (Extreme Tension) in Munich, he intensified his graphic and painterly work and combined his own literature with the visual arts. In 1976, Brus returned to Austria. He participated in numerous international events, including the documenta in Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982) as well as the Biennale in Venice (1980, 1995). In 1996, he received “The Grand Austrian State Prize for Visual Art” for his life’s work.