Gunter Brus

Gunter Brus was an Austrian performance artist, draughtsman, painter and film maker, and was born in 1938. With others he was a founder-member of the Aktionismus group (Viennese Actionism). Brus conceived of his Aktionen (action - call to art) in terms of paintings, where the body occupied the centre of a clearly defined space. Just as he had previously scratched and degraded the fabric of his paintings to the point of destruction whilst working in such a medium, in his Aktionen he portrayed various acts of self-mutilation.

In his Aktionen after 1967, Brus pushed himself to further physical and mental extremes as he analysed his own body and its functions. Symbolism was generally dispensed with in the performances, as Brus publicly urinated, defecated and cut himself with a razor-blade.

In his work entitled 'Self Paining', Brus covered his whole body in white paint, and then painted black lines over himself to suggest cracks. The collaged pins, razor blades and pen-knife take on the ritual significance of tools of torture, making Brus's body like that of a saint. By using his body in this way, Brus was trying to introduce raw human emotion into art (as opposed to symbolising it, as mentioned earlier). The collage is typical of the counter-culture which encompassed the Vienesse Actionists.

I think Brus himself sums up everything (if it's not already blatently obvious!!)
"Breaking taboos has almost become a style in my work."

Extreme stuff I'm sure you'll agree...