Aus der Serie "naturbilder"
Gerhard Rühm
Aus der Serie "naturbilder", 1969
Photo montages, over-paintings Color images from nudism magazine, mounted on black paper, artist’s ejaculate, 34.3 x 24.9 cm each, framed 70 x 50 cm each (GF0030036.00.0-1999, GF0030038.00.0-1999, GF0030039.00.0-1999)
WG0030277.00.0-1999
Artwork text
Due to his preference for questions of sexuality, which was still utterly taboo in the 1950s, Rühm is considered the “eroticist” of the Vienna Group. As in his “descriptions of paintings,” his overpainted representations, are clearly akin to the overpainted work made somewhat later by Arnulf Rainer. For Rühm, it was a matter of direct contact, of “touching” the representation of a woman’s body. In his nature paintings, Rühm links a representation with something authentic: “nature” as a representation—“nature” in the form of the artist’s ejaculation is superimposed on the picture of a nude woman in a landscape, taken from a nudist publication. (Nadja Wiesener)