VIENNA – Several shows are recognising Guenter Brus, the last surviving key member of Vienna’s famed “actionists”, who turned 85 this week and whose radical movement broke new ground using the body to make art.
Brus, together with three others, founded the “Vienna Actionism” movement which emerged in the 1960s.
The actionists did not shy away from using blood, urine and excrement as they defied the confines of traditional painting.
Of the group, only Brus is still alive, with retrospectives in Vienna and the city of Graz showing prints from his key performances, his pictorial poems and other important pieces to mark his 85th birthday.
“From an Austrian perspective, Guenter Brus is certainly one of the few who have outstanding international significance. It is impossible to imagine art history without him,” said Roman Grabner, who runs a museum dedicated to Brus in…
