Günter Brus

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Günter Brus (born September 27, 1938, Ardning, Styria) is an Austrian painter, graphic artist and writer.

He was the co-founder in 1964 of Wiener Aktionismus (Viennese Actionism) together with Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. His aggressively presented actionism intentionally disregarded conventions and taboos. Sentenced to 6 months in prison after the "Kunst und Revolution" event at the University of Vienna in 1968, he fled to Berlin with his family and returned to Austria in 1976. He was editor of the "Schastrommel" (author's edition) from 1969 on. In his "Bild-Dichtungen" he achieves a synthesis between poetry and painting.

Brus was awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1997. Most of his works contain aspects that are seen as controversial and out of ones comfort zone but this just seems to add to the somewhat endearing factor of his Art.

[edit] Further reading

• Green, Malcolm (1999). Writings of the Vienna Actionists. London: Atlas Press. "http://www.atlaspress.co.uk/index.cgi?action=view_arkhive&number=7"