Last October, Mike Weiss asked me if I would write an essay on the work of the seminal Austrian Actionist painter, Hermann Nitsch. Mike was in the process of planning an exhibition of Nitsch’s new work to be held at his gallery in February 2004. Since I had never actually met the artist, Mike arranged for a teleconference between Princenhorn, Austria and New York, so that Nitsch and I might get acquainted. Within minutes on the phone, I felt connected to Nitsch—not only as an artist whose work I had known for twenty-five years, but as a human being. The more we talked about his philosophy, his art, his influences, his life, and the invention of his Orgies Mysteries Theater (1960), the more I was convinced that, like it or not, Nitsch was a major artist, an artist to be reckoned with.

There are some who believe that critics are supposed to either make an endorsement or trash an artist. I would say that the real critic does neither. Criticism investigates an artist’s work and then makes a determination, hopefully with feeling, as to its value not just as visual culture, but as art. Hermann Nitsch is an artist worth listening to. He has been an established presence in Europe for over four decades, yet is lesser known among artists of a younger generation in the United States. Hopefully, this interview, conducted in early March 2004 at the Maritime Hotel, will spark both interest and controversy (much needed in our current market-driven art world), and perhaps it will indicate the inherent and sustaining power of Nitsch’s work and ideas.

Read the interview: HERE

Hermann Nitsch, New Paintings 
February 28 – March 27, 2004

Mike Weiss Gallery

520 W 24th St., New York, NY 10011