Arnulf Rainer

A couple of years ago, when I was still living in England, I went to the Tate Modern in London. It's a beautiful museum with lots of amazing paintings, including a rather fantastic surrealism section. But this time it was not the surrealist artists that got my heart beating faster, instead it was a painting by Arnulf Rainer called Wine Crucifix.




I could not stop staring at it, although I was aware of the fact that it is pretty scary/gruesome, for some reason it just really appealed to me. It is still my favourite painting to this day, and Arnulf Rainer is still my favourite artist. I don't know that much about him, other than that he was born in 1929 and apart from being an artist he also collect outsider art (art brut). He uses paint, photographs and has also made a lot of Übermalungen, which is basically drawings over old drawings (there's a fantastic book with his Übermalungen on Bible pictures). I might make another post sometime with some more actual information! Here are some of his works (I wish I had a scanner so I wouldn't have to rely on whatever's online):