Anyone know this artist?

Cafe Society
1

A while back I caught an exhibition at Vienna’s modern art museum featuring some photographs and film by an artist whose name I can’t remember. His stuff was rather bizarre (and I thought twisted) so I want to look him up to see if I can find the rationale his gave for his work. Here’s what I remember :

  1. He was a white guy w/ dark hair. I got the impression these were done in the 60’s or 70’s.

  2. A series of photographs depicting a man’s penis with some animal brains on and around it

  3. A video of a naked woman lying on the ground while he disembowels a dead animal that’s hanging over her.

  4. A video of a naked woman being sprayed with paint (I assume it was paint)

  5. A video of a boy having his head wrapped with string, then a clear gel spread all over his face, then paint spread and spit all over his face.

I haven’t had any luck w/ Google. I don’t go for this type of art but some of the images were rather disturbing (especially the boy) and I’d like to try to make some sense of it, right now it’s just a bunch of disturbing images in my head. Any help is appreciated.

2

You might try entering “Vienese Actionists” into google (but not too soon after eating).

You can see their influence today, either deliberately quoted as in a lot of the grislier Japanese stuff, or unwittingly referenced through cultural osmosis, but as a movement of their own, the Vienese pretty much hit their limit when Rudolf Scharzkogler died after slicing off his penis. Tough act to follow.

3

Sounds like it might be Gunther Brus or Herman Nitsch.
Strangely enough, Schwartzkogler died from falling out of a window three years after his self mutilation.

4

The other one that comes to mind, is Yorkshire’s Finest, the former Wildman of Hackney, now living in the States, Genesis P-Orridge.

Some of his Coum Transmissions of the 60s/70s performances were photographed and maybe found themselves there.

5

Thanks for the help, everyone. It was definitely one of the Vienese Actionists, though I haven’t figured out which one yet. They sound like they needed to chill a bit.