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Günter Brus

31 quotes

“It′s always seemed odd to me that people don′t paint with both hands. I mean, if I′m technically so shackled that I can′t paint with my hair, stomach or bottom, what about my other hand? You′ve got to live in painting. All-round painting... Indefinable space-at least indefinable in traditional terms-that′s what I require of my paintings. There must be absolutely no central focus... There can be no progress until that damned centre has been eliminated... My paintings are sublimated stamping,screaming and hissing-I try to translate a process experienced physically into a physically visible one.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 106 (1960)
“My body is the intention. My body is the event. My body is the result.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 187 (1966)
“Ritual” might be an acceptable term, if shorn of its overtly religious connotations.For me,breaking taboos became nothing less than a stylistic means. I allowed my body, my self, to be pushed into such extreme situations that certain norms of social behaviour could only appear utterly absurd to me.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 163 (1984)
“Oswald Wiener had just dropped by. We were watching a football world championship game. Suddenly,in the middle of a game with Germany,the reporter said,“Bertie Vogts slid in like an Irrwisch [Jack-o’-Lantern]”. Eureka! That was the title I was looking for,and Oswald wiener commented,“That fits perfectly-an irrer Wisch”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 196 (2002)
“I think my actions,like those of my associates,were possible in this form only in vienna. Our heritage was the vienna secession and Austrian expression,and that,along with the violent disapproval of our work,explains not only its frequently overwrought and aggressive character,but also its radical psychological insights.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 135 (2002)
“Self-painting is a further development of the art of painting. The surface of an image has lost its function as the sole means of conveying expression. It was taken back to its roots,to the wall,to the object,to the living being,to the human body. By using my body as a means of conveying expression,the result created is a happening captured by a camera as it progresses,and an experience which viewers can share.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 140 (1985)
“The white room is an interior to be made devoid of any specific sensualism emanated by objects. Ultimately it is classic white canvas expanded into three-dimensional space.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 144 (1985)
“Pure painting or the art of drawing whose point of departure is based on purely formal criteria is,in my opinion, passé. I do not reject it if other artists make attempts,but as far as I am concerned,this is what I believe. if I do not place a text next to my drawings,I consider the work on such programmes to be futile.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 208 (1993)
“In simple terms: art has not been a public nuisance for quite a while now. either the people have become well-behaved or the perpetrators of nuisances have become tired.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 208 (2003)
“Art is gushing hot bile on the fields and harvesting the looks of nasty dwarfs.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 216 (2003)
“I want to cover all areas that can be depicted visually. This ranges from fairytales to attempts to enter the abstract and view oneself as a social outcast or someone struggling to stay alive.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 218 (1987)
“Art is created in a state of delirium. Anyting else is the restoration of monuments. Collectors are artist that do not have a home. they have to make one for themselves.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 226 (2003)
“In fact,my art generally nauseated me. Often,when I wanted to set down a poem on an uncontaminated piece of paper,I′d start feeling sick and I did actually throw up in front of many drawings. I tremble all over in front of each picture-poem and before every action I would swallow a jar of pressed vine vermin. Time and again I strove for a kind of non-art,and time and again I failed,like a chimpanzee wanting to throw away a banana without peeling it. My disgust at producing art naturally atracted collectors,and ocassionaly photographers.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 238 (2002)
“My picture-poems are linguistic margins on visual atolls.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 250 (2003)
“For me,the Bild-Dichtung[image-poem] is the ideal form,because the drawing process is constantly being interrupted or contrasted by the writing. And since I always have something to say when I am writing,the effort has a balancing effect. Drawing and writing are wonderful complements.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 258 (2002)
“Writing without making mistakes is like vomiting hot air.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 261 (2003)
“Poetry is when words are robbed of their attributed truth.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 261 (2003)
“In a certain sense,I never left Actionism as I understood it to this very day. Today,I work in “sittings” that are very similar to the course of the actions. Only the stage has changed on which the presentation takes place.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 264 (2003)
“The pencil-stroke is like cutting into the heart.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My thinking at that time was determined by a kind of willfully repressed pleasure[Freude] in Freud ,and I wanted to be as artistically direct as plumber illustrating the history of art with a spanner.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 12 (Introductory text to the portfolio Transfusion,1990.)
“Analogously to Arnulf Rainer′s ‘overpaintings’,and extending these with my own actionistic resources, the artist′s head should be in the picture ,should become one with the picture, and disappear in it.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 12 (Gunter Brus inDie Schastrommel.Organ der österreichischen Exilregierung.Bolzano:ed. Gunter Brus,June 1972,no.8a, p. 57.)
“Being covered in white paint ,you demonstrate behaviour intended to create a public nuisance,which did in fact cause offence to members of the public ,and created a breach of the peace and public order.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 14 (Cit.after LockerWiener Aktionismus.Der zertrümmerte Spiegel.Wien1960-1971,op.cit., p. 299.)
“Color will play no part in the art of future.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hate people,who force their way through at traffic accidents to see blood. They...rape and dismember virgins,and have orgies.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 25 (1962) (Brus,letter,January 1962;cited inVon der Aktions Malerai zum Aktionismus:Wien 1960-1965,op.cit., p. 194.)
“You become an artist to upset your family.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 51 (Gunter Brus.Nach uns die Malflut!Pheoretische Poesien.Klagenfurt:Ritter Verlag,2003, p. 135)
“Creative children do not paint. They mess around. If they have to draw,creative children always end up being the ridiculous kind of child,who produces childern′s drawings Creative children wipe spinach round their gobs,that′s all. Any thing more that these crappy daubnings is the result of education-and before long we′re on a level with Paul Klee.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a boy,I was extremely shy,certainly as a result of my upbringing. I was an expert blusher,and some of my harsh actions may echo this shyness by way of compensation.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 51 (Gunter Brus in conversation with Johanna Schwanberg,graz,16 April 1997,in connection with an interview for the Spectrum section of the newspaper Die Presse, published in the issue of 26 April 1997 under the title…
“I covered the walls of both basement rooms with Milino,a cheap substitute for canvas,stretched string backwards and forwards across the rooms and attached widths of packing-paper to them,so that they reached down to the floor and as far as the walls that I wanted to paint. I wanted to create a labyrinth which would somehow help to prevent a compositional idea from establishing itself all too quickly. I had the idea of working on all the walls pretty well at the same time,as if they were one large painting completely surrounding me. By constantly wandering in the labyrinth I sought to realise a form of “de-composition”.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 114 (1985)
“Using the scanty means at my disposal I attempted to paint the room together with several objects that I had gathered together,white on white. The white room is an interior to be made devoid of any specific sensualism emanated by objects. Ultimately it is a classic white canvas expanded into three-dimensional space. It was in these surroundings that I rolled across the room,my body wrapped up in pieces of white cloth like a pile of parcels. The pieces of cloth unwound themselves from my tense body,which for a long time remained in a catatonic position,with the soles of both my feet stuck as it were to the wall.[...] I had planned to do some bodypainting for the second part of the performance.[...] At first I poured black paint over the white objects,I painted Anni with the aim of making a “living painting”. But gradually a certain uncertainty crept in. This was caused by jealous fight between two photographers,which ended by one of them leaving the room in a rage.[...] My unease increased,as I became aware of the defects in my “score”-and should this not have any,the mistakes in the way I was translating it into actions. Recognising this,I succumbed to a fit of painting which was like an instinct breaking through. I jammed myself into a step-ladder that had fallen over and on which I had previously done the most dreadful gymnastic exercises,and daubed the walls in frantic despair-until I was exhausted. The very last hour of “informel”. Mühl angrily ridiculed my relapse into a “technique” that had to be overcome.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 120 (1985)
“Total actions are a further development of the happening and combine the elements of all art forms, painting music, literature, film, theatre, which have been so infected by the progressive process of cretinisation in our society that any examination of reality has become impossible using these means alone. Total actions are the unprejudiced examination of all the materials that make up reality. Total actions take place in a consciously delineated area of reality with deliberately selected materials. They are partial, dynamic occurrences in which the most varied materials and elements of reality are linked,swapped over,turn on their heads and destroyed. This procedure creates the occurrence. The actual nature of the occurrence depends on the composition of the material and actors′ unconscious tendencies. Anything may constitute the material: people, animals, plants, food, space, movement, noise, smells, light, fire, coldness, warmth, wind, dust, steam, gas, events, sport, all art forms and all art products. All the possibilities of the material are ruthlessly exhausted. As a result of the incalculable possibilities for choices that the material presents to the actor,he plunges into a concentrated whirl of action finds himself suddenly in a reality without barriers, performs actions resembling those of a madman,and avails himself of a fool′s privileges,which is probably not without significance for sensible people. Old art forms seek to reconstruct reality,total actions unfold within reality itself. Total actions are direct occurrences(direct art),not the repetition of an occurrence,a direct encounter between unconscious elements and reality(material). The actor performs and himself becomes material: stuttering, stammering, burbling, groaning, choking, shouting, screeching, laughing, spitting, biting, creeping, rolling about in the material.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 166 (1966/1972)
“The seven dwarfs were devastated when an eighth joined them one morning before they went to work. He went straight into their house,took little plates and cutlery out of his waistcoat,grabbed the mining tools and was the first dwarf to set off for work. Caught off-guard by his cheeky but honest manner,the others followed,angry because he was showing them the way along the path they took every day and surprised when they found he had turned into dark grotto into a glass palace with Snow White hewn in gold. For these established prospectors it was terrible to behold the intruder appropriating for himself the right to mine the virgin goldmine.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 216 (1993)