(born in Baden near Vienna in 1929)
Chaotic painting, 1970s, monogrammed twice A. R and R., oil, oil chalk, graphite on cardboard, 50 x 72.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Klewan, Munich
Private Collection, Stuttgart

From: 26 Questions to Arnulf Rainer, Schütze, recorded by Johannes Gachnang, Skorpion, late December 1984 in Berlin.

In the winter of 1976/77, shortly before Schriften und Zeichnungen by Günther Brus was displayed in the Kunsthalle Bern, which I had put together, I was collaborating with my colleague Armin Zweite from the Lenbachhaus in Munich on a large retrospective exhibition on Arnulf Rainer to be shown first in Bern in the following spring, and then in Munich. It was a surprising, indeed, magnificent, exhibition that may have led to a new reception of this work that had long been dogged by the stigma of 1950s Informalism. In that winter, and for the exhibition, I had just two things in view: the colour ‘black’ and the form of the ‘spiral’ which were intended to lead to the heart of the presentation, offering a route into the colour black and then into the darkness and night of the secrets of Rainer’s work. The memories have stayed with me.
We also became closer on a personal level thanks to this collaboration – a cautious closeness that has led to various meetings and interactions in the form of new exhibitions over the past few years. They may also have been the cause of one of the questions detailed in the following which Arnulf Rainer wanted to answer in writing. This was so that we would not have to look each other in the eye: the form of the interview is a different kind of embarrassment, making a fool of oneself and laying oneself bare. Someone buries us with questions (or answers) while simultaneously using them to expose us, then they tell us what we know in the hope of a pithy answer which could in turn satisfy all kinds of vanity. In brief, this is another game that takes place on various levels, including the most trivial. I know but one thing: Arnulf Rainer hoped for difficult questions so he could give short answers.

JG
In the work created to date, I believe to have discovered, time and again, a deep-seated fear of the abso lute and its ability to bring the world out of alignment. Conversely, the search for moral guidance provided by a fixed system is not completely rejected, particularly in terms of your artistic strategies over the past few years. Do you see yourself as an agnostic?

AR
I don’t have a clear system, let alone a fixed one. I don’t need one, either. I grasp for any straws that help me bring things into form. Artists should fish in both clear and murky waters so that they can create powerful syntheses. The absolute might be the most complete synthesis that the artist can never achieve…
Arnulf Rainer, Schriften, Pinakothek der Moderne, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010