(born in Baden near Vienna in 1929)
Cross (with body of Christ), on the reverse signed and dated A. Rainer 1979/81, oil, metal, wood on wood, 186 x 125 x 15 cm

Exhibited and illustrated in the catalogue:
Carl Aigner/ Johannes Gachang/Helmut Zambo, Arnulf Rainer, abgrundtiefe- perspektive, Retroperspektive 1947–1997, Kunsthalle Krems, published by Christian Brandstätter, 1997, p.211 (full page color repr.)

Provenance:
Dorotheum Vienna, 25th of November 2010
Private Collection, Austria

It is this form of painting which crops up in the second cross series; it was this hectic painting which was able to lend an exceptional power to the form of the cross. However, here Rainer draws less on internally-focused, enigmatic effects as in the overpaintings, not the exalted form which is composed of itself - here the cross is an abrupt, sharply drawn form. Therefore he uses narrow, slight crosses in addition to the normal, relatively wide crosses which we recognise in his earlier works. A whole cascade of colours hurls itself down onto this tall, sharply defined form. The colours appear to be moving quickly, far reaching and wild - their strength is compressed by the severity of the drawn form, yet not brought to a still stand; instead the tension appears to have been further increased. With tempestuous movements the brushstrokes attempt to overpower the cross, to take it with them, yet the cross rises above, unassailable; the increasing tension between these two stems from the rapid flow of paint and the motionless form, neither able to break away from the another.
The cross can be recognised as art. Thus is there something of an apotheosis. (1987)
(Back translation into English of a text by Beth O’Brien)

The cross is a symbol for the human face. Step in front of the mirror, take a look at your face: you will see a cross marked within, wherever it may be.
Simultaneously, the cross is our European history, take it as one will.
Mondrian, Newman and Rothko fought for the cross and fantasized geometrically about it.
Whether vertical, or horizontal, sometimes in both directions. I myself no longer experience the world geometrically, but physiognomically.

Arnulf Rainer 1985
from: Arnulf Rainer- Kreuz /Cross, Arnulf Rainer Museum, DuMont 2010