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Painting Shirt from the 40th Painting Action

Malhemd der 40. Malaktion
Painting Shirt from the 40th Painting Action
Gesamtansicht, Vorderseite
Painting Shirt from the 40th Painting Action
Hermann Nitsch, Malhemd der 40. Malaktion, 1997, Öl auf Stoff, Holzlatte, 117 × 132 × 3 cm, 2018 Dauerleihgabe Atelier Hermann Nitsch, Belvedere, Wien, Inv.-Nr. Lg 1899#
© Bildrecht, Wien 2026
This is the English text for C. Contact: Reproabteilung.
  • Painting Shirt from the 40th Painting Action

  • Date1997
  • Artist Hermann Nitsch (1938 Wien – 2022 Mistelbach)
  • Object typeObject work
  • MediumOil on fabric, wooden slat
  • Dimensions
    117 × 132 × 3 cm
  • Signatureunsigned
  • Inventory number11909
  • Location Belvedere 21
  • Credit LineSchenkung des Künstlers

  • As a prominent representative of Viennese Actionism, painter and performance artist Hermann Nitsch began working on his concept for a multimedia „Gesamtkunstwerk“ in the 1960s: the „Orgies Mysteries Theater“, which brings together painting, music, and performance. At its ritualistic climax are multiday actions focused on the body, which were intended to intensify all the participants’ senses and ultimately dissolve the boundaries between art and life. In the fall of 1997, the „40th Painting Action“ took place over the course of ten days on the ground floor of the Museum of the 20th Century, which is now Belvedere 21. Through intense physical exertion before a live audience, numerous canvases were drenched, splattered, and smeared with paint and blood, applied both by hand and with brooms. Drawing on Abstract Expressionism, Nitsch understood these expressive large-format compositions as manifestations of a spontaneous artistic process.
    • Seit 2018 Dauerleihgabe Atelier Hermann Nitsch, Schloss Prinzendorf
    • 2021 Schenkung Atelier Hermann Nitsch, Schloss Prinzendorf
    Contact Provenance Research