Art & culture
Arnulf Rainer: from photobooth gesture to overpainting
The photographic surface can be a beginning for a different medium.
A portrait need not end when the print emerges. Arnulf Rainer’s practice brings gestures, photographs and painted marks into contact. The photograph remains present, even where the later intervention partly obscures it.
The museum’s account
In its account of Kreuz, Centre Pompidou connects Rainer’s grimacing self-portraits to experiments in a booth at Vienna’s Westbahnhof, followed by work with a professional photographer. It describes his drawing or painting over the photographs. This history does not mean every overpainted portrait came from a booth.
Evidence: Collection record
Look at two kinds of trace
When reading an altered image, distinguish what the camera recorded from what was added later. A mark can follow the face, contradict it or make it hard to see. That is a useful way of looking at this kind of work, rather than an instruction to attach a particular emotion to the sitter.
Try the idea on a replaceable copy
Make a duplicate of your own strip and experiment with a few drawn marks on that copy. Keep an unaltered version beside it. Compare whether your intervention changes the sequence, the expression or the balance of light and dark. Never practise on a unique family original or assume museum images are free to reproduce.
Sources & further reading
Sources for the specific facts and product descriptions above. Our worked examples, interpretations and practical suggestions are original editorial guidance.
- Centre Pompidou — Arnulf Rainer, KreuzCollection record