(born 1929 in Baden near Vienna)
‘Fetzenwischer’, 1974, titled twice and monogrammed A. R., oil, partially scratched, on plywood, 87 x 122 cm, framed, (K)

Provenance:
Sotheby’s London, Post War and Contemporary Art, 3 December 1987, lot 691
Galerie Würthle, Vienna (label – titled there as ‘Fetzenwischer auf Fußmalerei’)
From an Austrian Collection

Arnulf Rainer
THE PICTURE AS A PARTNER
On hand, foot and finger painting

Starting with an impulsive slap to the face which I gave my own photo dummy, painting with my own limbs has increasingly become a treasure chest of (applied) physical gestures of touch. The gesture of fondling, stroking or striking may find its concrete activation in video art of touching, slapping or soothing another person – but I find my own fingerprints on the pure, white painting surface put me into enough of a frenzy to imagine that hard white surface as my lover, my touch leaving behind traces which will then be claimed as the quality of painting. Naturally there are already steps into actually touching the skin, stroking, smearing or scratching. Their photographic documentation and archiving are only mentioned here and not reproduced. The south German figure of speech, “I’ll smear you one”, another way of threatening a slap in the face and a hard contact between hand and cheek, may lead some to a one-sided interpretation of this style of painting. They mainly started with gently touching the painting’s surface. Only when I didn’t sense enough life stirring, that is to say the intensity of marks, did I stroke, rub and gradually thrashed about. Yet even so, I go on dreaming of gentle, flowing touches, in order to soften and awaken a pictorial liveliness, which radiates fierce excitement. With regards to foot painting, it’s no secret here that this only became possible for me when I began to tread and trample on my bad pictures, with productive feelings of hatred, and to wipe the dirt-coloured soles of my feet on them…(1975)
From: Arnulf Rainer, Verdeckt-Entdeckt, Ulysses, Vienna, 1987