Hermann Nitsch

14 October – 14 November, 2021
Opera Gallery London

Opera Gallery London is pleased to present a solo exhibition featuring recent paintings as well as historic works by Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch.
Considered a key figure in Viennese Actionism of the 1960s, Hermann Nitsch continues to use a radical method of painting, essentially through his creation of the Orgien Mysterien Theatre, a concept of ceremonial performance art comparable to Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work).
This total art form calls to all five human senses and advocates for a profound existentialist reflection. Hermann Nitsch creates his paintings using his entire body. Therefore, they are simultaneously the origin and the result of his performances. Using or applying oil or acrylic paint of a certain hue, he spreads it on canvas using unconventional tools as well as his hands, feet and whole body movements. Through these actions, Nitsch demonstrates his energetic, spiritual, sensual and passionate persona. Chaos and violence, which accompany his work, are in fact a celebration of life and mirror the human soul.

Hermann Nitsch

BFGP_31/34_21
2021
Mixed media on canvas
300 x 400 cm | 118.1 x 157.5 in

Hermann Nitsch

HF_02_14
2014
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

“pouring, spilling, and splattering, squeezing sponges, slapping paint on, soiling, and rolling ought not to be seen as an actionist approach to wielding materials but rather as a shamanic ritual in which various actions symbolising birth and death, killing and expiation, are performed in a process of self-discovery”
– Hermann Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch

HF_05_20
2020
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

Hermann Nitsch

01b_14
2014
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm | 78.7 x 118.1 in

Hermann Nitsch’s creative expression is rich and proteiform, calling upon numerous media such as painting and action as well as installations, opera, musical creation, drawing, and engraving, which are all constitutive of the Theater, otherwise meant as a total work of art in accordance with the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. It is very important to understand the following: when you are contemplating one of Nitsch’s paintings, it is actually the Theater that you are gazing at and touching upon.

Hermann Nitsch

HF_17_18
2018
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

"I never was interested to make provocation. I want to show intensity. And let’s say, maybe in intensity is a kind of provocation, but for me [it] always is important to show life and to celebrate life."
– Hermann Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch

HF_24_18
2018
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

Hermann Nitsch

30_14
2014
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm | 78.7 x 118.1

Hermann Nitsch

13_13_i
2013
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm | 78.7 x 118.1 in

Hermann Nitsch

Tamme_20
2020
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm | 78.7 x 118.1 in

Hermann Nitsch

SF_11_19
2019
Mixed media on canvas
150 x 100 cm | 59.1 x 39.4 in

"Art is celebration of being. Art is a special kind of life. What kind of life is making lukewarm art? I will not make lukewarm art. I want to make anything art. I want to make art, which is so important—like the stars, the sun systems. I want to make art, which is so important, like being."
– Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch followed the honorable invitation by the Bayreuth Festival and staged the Valkyrie with a painting action under the musical direction of Pietari Inkinen. The performances with 10 assistants directed by Hermann Nitsch took place in July and August 2021.
“because of the corona crisis, bayreuth performs the valkyrie concertante. the singers will stand at the edge of the stage like at an oratorio. as an action artist, i have been invited to stage an actionistic event during the musical course of all three acts of the valkyrie. i would like to realize a painting action. the used poured and smeared colors of the entire rainbow spectrum will concur with the colorfulness of wagner’s music in a positive sense. the painting actions are preliminary stages of my own orgies mysteries theater, which i have developed in prinzendorf. i am especially looking forward to the continuous flow of luminous paint from top to bottom during these three acts. the painting processes will be music. sounds will become colors.”
– Hermann Nitsch, March 2021

Hermann Nitsch

HF_Alissa_21
2021
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

"I’m not so interested in the symbolism of color, but I do like the intensity of pure color."
– Hermann Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch

HF_Amilla_21
2021
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 150 cm | 78.7 x 59.1 in

Hermann Nitsch

Jolian_21
2021
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm | 78.7 x 118.1 in