At the End of the Rainbow
Arnulf Rainer has an immense palette. With this I’m not only thinking of his varied use of color, but also of the wide range of materials that he uses and the diverse ways in which paint or drawing implements are employed.
This freedom is something I greatly admire about his artistic approach. All the more, perhaps, because an artist doesn’t get that far with freedom alone. The point, after all, is to arrive – within that freedom – at the highest level of concentration, and this requires a great deal of energy. By limiting the free- dom of choice, many – and that certainly includes myself – are actually more able to find the required focus. Rainer, on the other hand, allows him- self everything and yet still manages to reach the peak of concentration.
My first acquaintance with the art of Arnulf Rainer involved worked-on photographs of himself. I encountered them in a book; the photographs gave the impression of being mutilated. They had an enormous appeal to me, and I could identify with the expression, their sense of wild abandon. Voiced in them was a combination of disgust, discord, helplessness, self-effacement and humor. They were very direct and seemed to have come about in a fairly uncomplicated way. Not until later did I find out that these works make up only a small part of Rainer’s oeuvre.
The drawings from which I’ve been able to make a selection have a completely different appearance, more tranquil. With the exception of the small black works from the series ‘Reste’ (zugemalte Übermalungen 1953-1978), they were produced during a later period (2006-1014). Although these works are calmer, they are just as direct and probing; strong in their liveliness, presence and aura. The drawings are composed of various layers. It’s as though each work promises – with each layer – access to something that lies behind it. Sometimes a color comes into view, while in other places the texture remains more impenetrable. All of this has a mysterious playfulness, which can almost be called cunning.
Rainer once wrote that he had...
