About Me
Rudolf Schwarzkogler (1940-1969) had a brief but brilliant career in art before either falling or jumping to his death from a window. An integral part of the group of Viennese performance artists consisting of Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, and Otto Muehl, Schwarzkogler shared their themes — pain, self-mutilation, guilt and exorcism — but differed in the control and aesthetic precision of his work. Whereas their deliberately provocative performances resembled pagan orgies, Schwarzkogler — influenced more by philosophy, Indian mysticism, Malevich and Suprematism (note the black square in the aktions) — performed all but one of his aktions in private, carefully staging series of tableaux to be captured by still photographs.
