Upon first glance, Hermann Nitsch’s 1962 Blood Painting is almost reminiscent of the works of Mark Rothko. The colours and shapes conjure images of Rothko’s famous Four Seasons images. However, the title of the image is literal. Nitsch painted it with red and black paint, as well as samples of his own blood. Nitsch was part of the short-lived Viennese Actionism movement, and created transgressive artworks that incorporated his own and other’s body parts.
Nitsch believed that artwork should disgust the audience, and in order to achieve this he often incorporated animal carcasses alongside religious imagery, as well as more real blood. His work incorporated ritual in order to celebrate the human body and Nitsch’s own personal philosophies.
The most popular of Nitsch’s works is The Orgies Mysteries Theatre. This was a six day long performance in which Nitsch attempted to reach the heights of excess, a celebration of the human body and a glorification of hedonism in the vein of much of his life’s work. The tactile, multi-disciplinary, work featured blood, food, nudity and dead animals. Nitsch also partook in the practice of action painting, one of which is described in the opening paragraph.