/internal/media/dispatcher/122723/fullPoured Painting from the 40th Painting Action1997[Hermann Nitsch]Hermann NitschÖl mit Blut auf Jute 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.Painting© Bildrecht, Wien 2026https://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/85623/rdf