Arnulf Rainer
Paints over things — photographs, Old Masters, death masks and his own face.
Arnulf Rainer was born at Baden near Vienna in 1929, walked out of two art schools within days, and arrived early at the operation he has performed ever since: Ubermalung, overpainting. He takes an existing image — a photograph of himself pulling a face, a reproduction of a crucifixion, a death mask, a medical illustration, a Van Gogh — and paints over it, sometimes almost obliterating it, leaving just enough visible to make the covering an act rather than a surface. He was associated with the Vienna Actionists' circle without belonging to it, and a museum devoted to his work opened at Baden in 2009.
The market is principally Austrian and German. Face Farces and Body Poses, the overpainted photographs of himself from the late 1960s and 1970s, are the most sought group, together with the black and cross paintings. Because the works combine oil, oil crayon and pastel over photographic paper or printed reproductions, they present layered conservation problems and are frequently unfixed; surfaces smudge and cannot be cleaned. Rainer is prolific and the supply of later work is substantial. There is a very large printed output in etching and lithography.
If you own a work by Arnulf Rainer
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.