Rosarot Himmelblau: Rainer

Abstract

"The art of Arnulf Rainer (*1929) is baffling. The 'black overpainting,' with which he covers previous work, is world famous. We overlook the fact that overpaintings in red, blue, green and white also exist and thus that colour always belonged to his means of expression, as this volume vividly demonstrates. Characteristic of Rainer's work is not only the use of paint, but also the way that he applies it, as the energetic use of physical strength in his hand and finger paintings from the 1970s and 1980s shows. At the end of this period he changed over to a more transparent painting method and used broad brushes to apply the paint like a veil. The visually stunning publication presents works from widely differing series, including Blattmalerei, Engel, Geologica, Goya, Landschaften, Mikrokosmos and Makrokosmos."