Document Type
Essay
Abstract
[Sixth paragraph]
In the following essay I discuss the Austrian artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler. I have enjoyed the process of ferreting out articles and references to him, although these are seemingly as scarce as his own artistic output. Schwarzkogler spent just 2 years staging "performance-actions" in his apartment in the 1960s. These methodically photographed scenes involved sliced fish, bandages, light bulbs, razor blades, foodstuffs and surgical apparatus, all manipulated by anonymous figures. The photographs, works of art in their own right, have since toured internationally. Schwarzkogler was the least outgoing of a group called the Viennese Actionists, whose orgiastic, bloody Happenings have become legendary. Rather than trace the history of the group in general, or alight upon single works in particular, this is more of a personal homage to an intriguing individual. Schwarzkogler, however, was not a success in his own lifetime. He was very much overshadowed by close colleagues whose work had a more attention-grabbing manner. Rudolf took his life in 1969 after creating only six private "performance actions" and leaving a fragmentary collection of notes and sketches.
Repository Citation
Barnes, Philip. "The Mind Museum: Rudolf Schwarzkogler and the Vienna Actionists." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 2, no. 3, 2002, pp. 1–10. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol2/iss3/2
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons