Albertina opens Arnulf Rainer retrospective a year after his death

Vienna’s Albertina will open a major retrospective of Arnulf Rainer on 12 November, a year after the Austrian artist’s death, ORF reports. Titled “Self-Conversations,” the exhibition traces his work chronologically across its main phases.

The 71 works come entirely from the Albertina’s collection, which holds about 600 pieces by Rainer. Nearly half of the works on display were added in recent years, including pieces from The Essl Collection and the Haselsteiner Family Collection. The final room features further gifts from Rainer’s widow and daughter.

The exhibition follows Rainer’s development from his early turn away from Surrealism towards Informel and Tachism after a 1951 trip to Paris with Maria Lassnig. It also covers his overpaintings and experiments with drugs, before turning to the figurative series “Face Farces” and “Body Poses.”

Works on view include almost entirely black canvases, overpainted photographic self-portraits, examples of his hand and finger painting, and pieces exploring the cross form, which Rainer did not consider religious. The show also includes examples of his “colour frenzies.”

Curator Antonia Hoerschelmann described Rainer’s life as a tension between “everything” and “nothing”: he continually sought new artistic challenges while also using his work to pursue calm and contemplation. Rainer said in 2014 that he had no bad conscience about leaving riddles behind. The exhibition, which runs until 25 April 2027, does not claim to solve them.

The Albertina is open daily from 10am to 6pm, and on Wednesdays and Fridays from 10am to 9pm.