With the death of the painter, performance artist and actionist Hermann Nitsch, a pioneer figure of Austrian art of the 20th century. With these words, Innsbruck Bishop Hermann Glettler, responsible for art and culture in the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, paid tribute to the artist who died on Easter Monday. “Without him, Viennese Actionism would have remained a ‘bloodless’ revolt in the sense of the word, even if it was relevant in terms of cultural history.” Nitsch’s legacy is “extremely impressive and a lasting source of inspiration” for the bishop, who is also an artist.
“Ambivalent”, however, is his close relationship to the Catholic liturgy, seen from the outside. On the one hand, in the 1970s, when there were “radical internal church rejection of rites, images, traditional paraments and other sensual moments of the liturgy”, Nitsch recalled the cult with the greatest possible pathos – “and thus a sore point met”, as Glettler found: “When the Eucharist speaks of the body and blood of Jesus, then that is actually not just negligible sign language, but real presence.” This “foreign prophetic impulse” to the inseparability of sensuality and meaning is commendable.
At the same time, Nitsch consciously mixed the Old Testament understanding of sacrifice, the blood rites of the Mithraic cult and the orgiastic elements of the Greek Dionysus worship with the shedding of blood and other archaic cult acts in his ideas of the orgy-mystery theater in order to intensify the perception of life . “However, this artistic approach diametrically contradicts the basic understanding of Catholic liturgy,” even if Nitsch integrated chasubles, sacred vessels and other liturgical elements mostly decoratively into his actions. According to Glettler, Christ stands for a completely different form of life intensity and joie de vivre: devotion, devotion, foot washing and service instead of “cult-intoxicated, Dionysian celebration of life”.
Hermann Nitsch provoked civil and ecclesiastical norms and, despite an “excessive self-portrayal as the cult master of his self-imagined world of mysteries”, significantly influenced Austrian art and intellectual history, the bishop acknowledged. With his large bulk pictures, action relics and paintings, Nitsch has obviously created something lasting, this oeuvre will defend its place in a museum. “Respect and grateful memories” Glettler paid Nitsch, also looking back on some personal encounters.
Kapellari: Appreciation following “detour”
“I commemorate the deceased with great respect and great appreciation”: the retired Graz diocesan bishop Egon Kapellari told Kathpress in his obituary for Hermann Nitsch. The ever-stronger bond between the “extremely versatile and talented” artist and the bishop, who has been dealing with art for decades and which is characterized by “mutual respect”, has of course taken a “detour via some conflicts and demarcations”, as Kapellari said.
When he first met Nitsch in January 2000 at a panel discussion on the subject of “excitement in art” at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, he expressed criticism above all of the text “The Conquest of Jerusalem”, which others also felt was blasphemous. In it, Nitsch “represented the person of Jesus Christ in a way that hurt me,” which prompted the bishop to ask “whether an aggressive dismantling of taboos creates more freedom, but can also open the way to destruction.”
At a symposium on “The Mass” in South Tyrol in 2011, where the bishop led the concluding Sunday service in Brixen Cathedral, Hermann Nitsch spoke on the subject of “The Mass as a place of orgiastic existence”. Kapellari recalled that he had “uttered a lot of positive comments regarding the Catholic Church and liturgy in general”. All of this led to a “general relaxation of the relationship” between Nitsch and church people and institutions and to a large number of contacts until his death. However, the “orgiastic” element in Nitsch’s art remained alien to him, the bishop remarked.
Black: Images of an offering from God
In his editorial on the death of Hermann Nitsch, St. Pölten Bishop Alois Schwarz recalled the “intensive time surrounding St. Pölten Cathedral” in his last years. According to the bishop, this time gave him “occupation, insight and understanding” for the work of the artist. “Nitsch created images of the future that depict an offer from a god who says: ‘I’m standing in front of your door, open up.’ After evenings and encounters, his words regarding the Eucharist and the incarnation of our God still resonate deeply in me,” says Schwarz. It was particularly significant for him that Nitsch, “for whom the resurrection was the principle of his life”, died on Easter Monday. Nitsch “touched and invigorated” many people.
In a statement from the Diocese of St. Pölten, cathedral organist Ludwig Lusser described the close personal encounter with Nitsch as a great experience. “His art has a lot of expressiveness regarding our human existence and beyond”. The basis of her “enthralling, emotionally dynamic effect” is Nitsch’s personality itself, which was impressively characterized “by honesty and fulfillment for art”.
“You mightn’t get past him”
For the leader of the Graz “cult”, the theologian and art historian Johannes Rauchenberger, Hermann Nitsch died “undoubtedly one of the most important artists in Austria since 1945”: The Viennese Actionism, which the deceased helped to shape, was “Austria’s” contribution to international post-war art. As a curator of exhibitions on the relationship between art and religion, “there was no getting around him,” Rauchenberger referred to Nitsch’s early poured painting as part of the 2018 show “Glaube Liebe Hoffnung” at the Graz Kunsthaus.
“Personally, I once sat on the podium with him in Bizau, so I don’t remember his high-priestly attitude very well,” Rauchenberger recalled in an interview with Kathpress. Sacred behavior does not only exist in the church. According to the “Kultum” leader, however, theological conflicts surrounding his art were often unnecessary: in his art, Nitsch did not mean the same thing that Catholics understand by the mass. “Actually, using the paraphernalia and vestments for his art was more of a decoration than a ‘desecration’ of sacred objects.”
But from a historical perspective, Nitsch “also achieved a great deal theologically,” said Rauchenberger. The church art expert considered it an “irony of history” that the “erosion process” of liturgical acts, languages and actors had progressed so far “that Hermann Nitsch was simply confused with a high priest from primeval times”. It would have been worth a lot to Nitsch to hold his orgy-mystery theater in a Catholic church. What he was denied, however.
Forgiving final comment by Rauchenberger: “In the end, the Catholic sacrificial priests and the high priest Hermann wanted the same thing: In the end, life should stand – or conquer. It doesn’t matter whether the means are suffering or intoxication.” Günther Rombold (1925-2017), bridge builder between church and modern art, had already said regarding Nitsch: He wanted to reconcile Christ with Dionysus.
Rauchenberger recalled a different kind of ironic break in Graz’s Andräkirche following meeting the former pastor there and now Innsbruck’s bishop Hermann Glettler: In 2002 he had a deceptively real Nitsch doll with a blood-smeared robe by the Styrian artist Gustav Troger in St. Andrä’s church provided altar room. “The sacrificial priest had to watch the other sacrificial priest perform the ritual for 40 days,” Rauchenberger wrote on Facebook.
Nitsch: “I love the Catholic tradition”
A year and a half ago, the “Hermann Nitsch Festival” took place in St. Pölten Cathedral, as it was called in November 2020 on the occasion of the event “Encounters with Music & Art from Nitsch”. For three days, those who were interested were able to see paintings by the performance artist and a resurrection triptych, hear Nitsch’s texts read by Maria Bill and the concluding “Organ Mysterium” by the versatile artist. During an artist talk, Nitsch also entered into a dialogue with diocesan bishop Alois Schwarz and former governor Erwin Proell. This series of events in a church setting made a further contribution to easing the history of the conflict between Nitsch and the Catholic Church.
Nitsch himself has repeatedly opposed the criticism of blasphemy and denied his alleged opposition to Christianity. “In truth, for me, Christianity was the last living religion that touched me deeply even as a child and thus enabled me to enter the realm of the mythical,” the internationally renowned Weinviertel artist once recalled in an interview. Christianity has a symbolic language that goes far beyond its “dogmatic narrowness”. Today he recognizes the Eucharist as “one of the most profound mysteries that religions have ever produced,” says Nitsch: “My heart belongs to the sensual truthfulness, opulence of Catholicism, and I love the Catholic tradition, which unfortunately has become a museum through the fault of the church is.”
Source: Kathpress
