Otto Muehl "Temple Destroyer"
Maccarone
This event has ended.
Otto Muehl is primarily known in the US for films and photographs of his 1960s' actions in which he attacked abstract painting and the picture surface. Over a period of ten years, from around 1961 to the early 1970s, we observe in his work a struggle to find innovative visual forms that also create a relevant socio-political statement. This neo-avant-garde phase of Vienna Actionism attempted to rehabilitate human depiction by emphasizing the political significance of the body. This view takes on a new significance and power in the performances of Muehl and the other Actionists, never before formulating an art practice of such radicality. Yet around 1970, this iconoclastic approach transforms before the backdrop of a fundamental reorientation. Temple Destroyer, on view at maccarone, exhibits works from several series that essentially conform to the 1960s slogan of Muehl's "destroyed picture", yielding less of a direct attack against the picture itself and more upon an entire art system.
Media
Schedule
from May 03, 2008 to June 28, 2008