Arnulf Rainer at the MAK - Vienna

Wednesday, 11 October 2006 13:00

Vienna, Austria - With a new exhibition format under the series title of ARTISTS IN FOCUS, the MAK launches a new strategy for its Contemporary Art Collection.  For six months each, essential bodies of work by contemporary artists represented in the collection will be shown in focused single presentations.  One central aspect of the project is to help facilitate necessary purchases to expand the MAK Permanent Collection Contemporary Art.  Starting with Arnulf Rainer, ARTISTS IN FOCUS presents one of the most important contemporary Austrian artists whose work was exhibited in hundreds of personal and group exhibitions worldwide.

“RAINER, sonst keiner! Überschriftungen” features a body of works by Arnulf Rainer which have never been shown so comprehensively before.  In 1991 already, the artist donated a selection of original poster designs to the MAK.  Rainer himself did the poster designs for almost all his exhibitions as well as for cultural cooperation projects such as theater productions.  For each poster, he produced a variety of designs and graphic detailing which were then brought together in the production process.  Rainer’s originals are impressive because of their graphic-art approach which combines a calligraphic style with painterly elements.

“RAINER, sonst keiner! Überschriftungen” provides an insight into this intense and concentrated working method.  A generous loan from the artist who made all originals still in his possession available for the exhibition makes it possible to juxtapose the designs and the printed posters, surveying different stages in the work of Rainer along his exhibition history.