Günter Brus, born 1938 in Styria, is an Austrian artist and one of the most radical representatives of Viennese actionism. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in 1970 (shortly before the abolition of this form of punishment). He lived in exile in West Berlin for a long time to escape imprisonment. While in the 1960s he was particularly attracted to his actions, he has turned back to drawing since the beginning of the 1970s.
Impressed by German expressionism, by Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh, then by abstract expressionism and by artists like Emilio Vedova, he began in 1960 with radical gestural painting, bursting the usual picture. In 1964 Brus had his first performance. From the beginning, it was essential for him to place his own body at the center of the action. Since 2011, his work has been presented at the Neue Galerie Graz within the BRUSEUM, a museum dedicated solely to his work.
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