Hermann Nitsch

Hermann Nitsch, founder of Viennese Actionism and born in Vienna in 1938, is considered a versatile contemporary artist: painter, actionist, composer (symphonies, organ concertos), stage designer. Crucial to his oeuvre is the Gesamtkunstwerk of the Orgien Mysterien Theater a six-day festival that brings together all his artistic endeavours.

Other highlights of his work include the cycle of Schüttbilder, created in 1987 at the Vienna Secession, and the Drei Tage Spiel in Prinzendorf (1984). Nitsch first realised the ideal of the 6 Tage Spiel in 1998. During Nitsch's actions, large-format pictures are often created by spilling, splashing and smearing paint and/or blood.