Arnulf Rainer

In its new exhibition, opening on October 24, 2026, the Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden near Vienna will focus on two influential figures in Austrian art history: Arnulf Rainer and Hermann Nitsch.

This first joint exhibition presents Rainer and Nitsch not as successive chapters in Austrian art history, but as two simultaneously vibrant artistic positions. A dialogue between their works reveals common threads: process and transformation, body and trace, cross and wound, as well as the shift of art from object to experience. For the first time, an exhibition is dedicated exclusively to these two exceptional artists in a joint show.

Arnulf Rainer (b. 1929 in Baden, d. 2025 in Upper Austria) and Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938 in Vienna, d. 2022 in Mistelbach) are among the world’s best-known artists of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Although they followed different paths, they are united by a radical expansion of the concept of art: the focus is not only on the finished work, but also on the artistic process and the question of what a painting actually is. Today, the two are associated in particular with their pioneering work in the field of abstract painting: Arnulf Rainer’s “Übermalungen” and Hermann Nitsch’s “Schütt- und Rinnbilder” are integral parts of the art-historical canon.

Arnulf Rainer is considered a pioneer of informal painting in Austria. With his “overpaintings”—a technique he developed beginning in the 1950s—he fundamentally revolutionized painting and gained worldwide recognition.

Hermann Nitsch was a co-founder of Viennese Actionism and, with the “Orgies Mysteries Theater,” created one of the most significant total works of art of the postwar era. As an Actionist, painter, composer, and set designer, he combined painting, music, performance, and ritual into an art form that engages all the senses.

The Zambo Collection As part of a generous donation in 2024, Helmut Zambo transferred the core of his art collection—assembled over approximately 65 years—to the Lower Austrian State Collections. Zambo describes himself as a “deep collector” and focused on a select few artists and art movements. A central part of the donation consists of approximately 300 works by Arnulf Rainer, supplemented by significant holdings of Art Brut, Günter Brus, and Hermann Nitsch. The exhibition recreates the characteristic salon-style hanging arrangement in which he lived among his collection—an arrangement he personally recreated for the mezzanine level of the Arnulf Rainer Museum.

Dates: October 24, 2026 – October 3, 2027