Günter, Otto MUEHL, and Herman NITSCH; Malcolm GREEN ( editor and translator ). Atlas Arkhive. Seven Documents of the Avant-Garde: Brus Muehl Nitsch Schwarzkogler Writings of the Vienna Actionists edi

by BRUS

£1,500 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

The Vienna Actionists BRUS, Gunter, Otto MUEHL, and Herman NITSCH [ed. and translated by Malcolm GREEN]. Atlas Arkhive Seven: Brus Muehl Nitsch Schwarzkogler: Writings of the Vienna Actionists. London: Atlas Press . 1998. Square 8vo. Original publishers white wrappers with signatures of Brus, Muehl and Nitsch to front wrapper; pp. 257, [5, ads], [7]; enclosed in original black slipcase; accompanied by separate booklet of banned photographs; fine. First limited edition, numbered 90 out of 100 slipcased, numbered and signed. Loosely inserted booklet limited to one hundred copies to accompany this signed edition and a further one hundred copies marked 'H.C', as is this copy. Arguably the most intense performance artists of the 20th century, The Viennese Actionists pushed boundaries of performance art, using it as their own version of action painting, specifically through explicit exhibitions of the body. As four of the most radical and revered Actionists, Brus, Muehl, Nitsch and Schwarzkogler caused wide controversy by confronting a number of unspoken taboos. The Actionists fought to encourage an uncomfortable audience to acknowledge repressed memory of trauma through lack of inhibition often involving acts as extreme as mutilation. Gunter Brus served a six-month prison sentence following the performance Art and Revolution in 1968 during which he sang the Austrian National Anthem whilst uniformed in his own faeces. Equally, Nitsch was imprisoned for enacting brutal sexual scenes

• Binding: Hardcover

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