Arnulf Rainer

Arnulf Rainer (b. 1929) is an Austrian painter, printmaker, photographer and collector, born in Baden, near Vienna. He had virtually no formal instruction in art and his technical procedures are often unconventional. His early works, mainly drawings and prints, were inspired by Surrealism. Later he was influenced by Abstract Expressionist and Art Informel. In the mid-1950s he began producing ‘overpaintings,’ in which he took as a basis a painting, drawing or photograph (either his own work or someone else's) and partially obliterated the image with monochromatic colour. A similar concern with reworking surfaces occurs in many of his prints, in which he sometimes uses the same plates again and again. ‘Overpaintings’ dominated Rainer's work for about a decade, until the mid-1960s. He also produced a series of cruciform pictures during this period. In 1963 he began collecting Art Brut and the following year he began experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs—indications of his interest in extreme emotional states. Thematically he has a preference for religious and mystical subjects, as well as themes related to body language and nature.