(born Basle in 1934) Untitled, early 1960s, dispersion on cotton, on canvas, 188 x 240 cm, on a stretcher, (K)

Compare in:
Von der Aktionsmalerei zum Aktionismus Wien 1960–1965, published by Ritter, Klagenfurt 1988, ill. page 136, 138, 139

Provenance:
From a Viennese collection

Alfons Schilling: Excerpts from recordings, autumn 1961; from the above literature

Infinity can only be felt when I strike out beyond the confined, to the boundaries, escaping them. Each infinity which is unending in itself, is not unending, it too is conceivable and logical as soon as I operate with “alteration”. I scorn the meditative in painting, for I can only start from a certain standpoint, the “I” or the “not at all”. I seek to change the viewpoint, the relative, not morality as such, but the morality of action. One must be able to approach my picture from all sides and leave my picture from all sides, which then continues like a ringing sound. (...)
I have to take a radical step further in the method for my “formality”. I will try to work on four pictures simultaneously, that is to say, a huge sheet of paper will be divided into four parts after having been painted, or cut up according to other rules, which perhaps I must still discover. The possibility of the unlimited, unending picture can only be represented as a cut-out. How can I perceive “infinity” in a picture, unless I no longer have the chance to view the picture as something complete? Every foothold must be taken from the viewer (even if it is only the edge). Only the unsustainable is true painting. It should not be possible to begin or to end anywhere in the picture. These two specifications must lie outside it. Because as such they gauge a certain length of time. (...) Perspective was invented to give a foothold, a means of enclosing space. Our new foothold is time, which perhaps takes on this same notional function as perspective did previously. That would be clear to me. Less clear is whether I need this “new foothold” at all, as I can apparently also work without any footing. Is time not also superable with infinitely-rapid movement. And the rules for the cutting up - principle of THIRDS? Chance?
Chance is not to be scorned. It is possibly an even more certain law than a principle. Shift of position. The unexpected and the necessary directed chaos image of a life process up till now space is just a feeling, - we have not yet come so far.
(1 March 1961)