Drawing Today Arnulf Rainer

Drawing Today- book

Tony Godfrey -

'Drawing is the most important and exciting development in contemporary art. Because it is such a direct and expressive medium it has always been considered a crucial artistic practice'

Arnulf Rainer

Untitled. 1969/72. Oil

Crayon and ink on paper

60.7 x 50.4cm.

Private collection 

The overdrawn photographs are Rainer's most potent work. The example here; a photograph of himself, shows extreme body language. As the photo loses its boldness he restores the strength of his facial expressions drawing  bold lines around the edges of his profile with crayon and ink. He has disfigured his face and has been interested in disfigurement since 1954 when he began to draw over old drawings. 

Rainer's involvement in campaigns into help bring the mentally ill back into the community runs parallel to - his belief of a necessity of the art of the mentally ill, 'whose unknown meaning and expressions must be brought into normal discourse' 

After reading a bit about his work I really like his idea of using drawing to disfigure the face and body. Rainer tends to  show distressed and extreme body language throughout his drawings. He may have witnessed people who are mentally ill and these drawings are his thoughts and reactions to the behavior or he feels he can relate to them.

A Nose Adjustment (Face Farce) 1971

Oil pastel and photograph on paper

support: 608 x 507 mm 

frame: 823 x 731 x 22 mm

Untitled (Body Language) 1973

Oil pastel and photograph on paper

support: 595 x 501 mm

Untitled (Face Farce) 1970-1

Photograph, black and white, on paper, wax crayon and watercolour

support: 590 x 417 mm

Farbige Oil crayon in colors over black and white photograph
Signed and titled lower left. On barite paper. 59,7 x 49,5 cm (23,5 x 19,4 in), the full sheet