The art of Günter Brus, long notorious, is on show in Berlin. The Austrian provocateur, born in 1938 and living in Graz, abused his body in sexual and scatological performance works. Now Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin explores the legacy of the artist.His oeuvre is linked to Viennese “actionism” and West Berlin’s art scene in the 1970s, while retaining a very personal character. The controversial performances that Brus staged in 1960s and 1970s were an attack on the bigotry and self-proclaimed chasteness of the contemporary society. He first invaded the public space as a “living painting” in his 1965 work “Wiener Spaziergang” (Vienna Walk). Covered in white and black paint, Brus walked around the city in an attempt to open up a dialogue between everyday life and conceptual art.While that event seemed shocking to many at the time, it was only the beginning for Brus’s obsession with his body as a site of artistic practice. His performance art culminated in “Zerreißprobe” (Crucial Test, 1970, Munich) where the artist probed the boundaries of using the body and body waste as painting material. As Brus declared: “Freud analyzed the soul. I dug into flesh, going radically beyond what could be considered disgusting.”Brus’s interest in the body as a transgressive, radical site can be seen as an artistic homage to his Viennese predecessors, such as Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. There also exists a strong visual link between Brus’s various drawings and other works on paper, some now on show, and Expressionism and Symbolism of the early 20th century. His so-called picture-poetry, such as “Zyankal-Zyklamen” (1982/83, oil pastel on brown paper) reveals his more lyrical side.Brus’s radical approach in his early performances seems to signify his definitive break with traditional art forms. The later paintings and drawings we can now see testify to the artist’s actual fascination with the art of his predecessors.“Günter Brus: Fault Zones” runs at Martin Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin through June 6, 2016. More information at www.gropiusbau.de/
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