Hauser & Wirth's pocket survey of paintings and collages by the Vienna Actionists (Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler) offers a rare opportunity to revisit the intense if sometimes bizarre accomplishments of these Austrian artists who emerged in the 1960s. Like their contemporaries in Germany, they were born during the Third Reich, and their work could be seen, in part, as reaction to the horrors of Nazism. But whereas Richter and Polke borrowed from American Pop Art, the Actionists developed a visceral expressionism, rooted in performance art. Nominally a rejection of American AbEx and its European analog, Art Informel, Actionism often involved or referred to depredations to the body, both literally and figuratively. A sense of alienated rage percolated throughout, and allusions to blood and fecal matter were common. Distinguished by its embrace of abjection, Actionism left a strange legacy that lives on in contemporary art.
Autumn is nearly here, which means rich pickings for museumgoers as the Met, MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, and other institutions and galleries around the city gear up for the best fall art shows. There is lots to see, as usual, but to help you make sense of it all, here are our picks of the top ten must-see museum exhibits.
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