Portrait of Hermann Nitsch

Wikipedia: Hermann Nitsch (29 August 1938 – 18 April 2022)[1] was an Austrian contemporary artist and composer. His art encompassed wide-scale performances incorporating theater, multimedia, rituals and acted violence. He was a leading figure of Viennese Actionism.

Born in Vienna, Nitsch received training in painting when he studied at the Wiener Graphische Lehr-und Versuchanstalt, during which time he was drawn to religious art.[2][3] He is associated with the Vienna Actionists—a loosely affiliated group of off-kilter and confrontational Austrian artists which also includes Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler.[4]

Nitsch's abstract 'splatter' paintings, like his performance pieces were inspired by his neutral perspective on humanity and being human. In the 1950s, Nitsch conceived of the Orgien Mysterien Theater (which roughly translates as Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries or The Orgiastic Mystery Theater) and staged nearly 100 performances between 1962 and 1998.[4]