Arnulf Rainer

Arnulf Rainer was born in Austria in 1929. Rainer would become one of the most well respected painters of his time incorporating the theories and concepts behind Surrealism.

Internationally acclaimed for his work with abstract informal artistic paintings, Rainer joined with other artists in 1950 to form what was called the Hundsgruppe which is translated as the "Dog Group" and based on the ideas behind Surrealism.

The ideas of Surrealism was based mostly on the element of a shock-factor so it isn’t surprising that Rainer found his place as an artist painting within the realm of its definition. However, in 1953 his work began to move in another direction taking a turn toward overpaintings, and he gradually moved his talent in a darker direction with the ‘Destruction of Forms’.

In the sixties, Rainer began to truly experiment with the artistic creation brought on by drugs, specifically those that trigger hallucinations such as LSD. In 1968, he began painting his own face and participated in an individual exhibition at the Museum of the 20th Century in Vienna.

Rainer again and again defied social taboos, not only in the genre of erotics, but from 1977 on also in the series of death masks and death drawings. Essentially he had a desire to shock viewers into awareness through acting out taboo situations and experiences.