Günter BRUS

SELF PAINTING

Self-mutilation 1965

'Self-painting is a further development of painting. The pictorial surface has lost its function as sole expressive support. It was led back to its origins, the wall, the object, the living being, the human body. By incorporating my body as expressive support, occurrences arise as a result, the course of which the camera records and the viewer can experience.'  

-Gunter Brus, quoted in Le Marais. Sonderheft Günter Brus, 1965

The black stripe is self mutilation, a symbol. He walked through Vienna like this and was eventually arrested for being potentially disturbing to the people. The body is centre of the painting.

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