(Basel 1934 - 2013 Vienna)
‘Untitled’, 1960/61, inscribed (twice) on the reverse Schilling and further inscribed Alfons Schilling III Messenhauserg. 5 20.5.34 ‘Untitled’, 8000, dispersion on molino, 220 x 247 cm, the margins reinforced with canvas, stretched across a wooden frame, 223 x 253 cm, framed, (K)

Exhibited and full-page colour-illustration in the catalogue:
Von der Aktionsmalerei zum Aktionismus, Wien 1960–1965
Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 12 June – 4 Sept. 1988
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 24 Sept. – 13 Nov. 1998
Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, 16 March –15 May 1989,
Katalog: Ritter Verlag, 1988, vol. 1, p. 136

Provenance:
Galerie Kalb, Vienna
Collection Oskar Schmidt, Vienna
From an Austrian Collection

Günter Brus, Alfons Schilling, Autumn 1960 - Spring 1961

During the autumn of 1960 Brus moved almost everything out of his quarters, a room in the Ayrenhoffgasse 10, in the 9th district, which had been the former residence of a coal merchant and measured only 2.5 x 6 m, covering the walls and bed and table with brown paper. Priming the paper in white, he began to paint, using the entire space in the room, right up to the ceiling. He used the three available surfaces simultaneously in order to break the dominance of the centre. He continued to live in this room which was soon entirely covered in paint. Schilling and Brus met almost every day to discuss their work. They used similar materials, cheap pigments which they mixed with an acrylic binding agent. Brus limited himself to black, Schilling included earth red and green. Their painting turned away from the conventional sense of the aesthetic; the aim was not to be beautiful, but rather as flat and cold as possible. The paints should be applied, unmixed, on the canvas, to avoid any painterly appearance; even mixing white and black to grey was regarded as too accommodating. Brus used a variety of objects as brushes in order to avoid conventional brushwork; for example, he tried to apply the colours with a Persian dagger which had been acquired as a gift. Then he tried whips, dipped in paint; they tore through the paper. The work became a mere trace of an Action, the painting the random impression of a movement in space. “When, for example, I walk towards the canvas with the brush, but I don’t touch the canvas, instead withdrawing the brush again, then that is a form of drama, if you wish.” (Brus)
In his works Schilling wants to give the impression that a brushstroke has hit the canvas from a distance of several metres before returning back into the room. “An Action is being carried out in the room, somewhere there stands a painting, and the brushstrokes are placed upon it by chance.” (Schilling)…

In their discussion they develop numerous ideas about conquering new fields of painting: where Schilling wishes to use both hands to paint, Brus counters that he will also use his feet. Brus develops the concept of a Plexiglas ball; the painter would be enclosed within and would paint the surfaces surrounding him. Schilling talks of a form of total painting, in which not only the painter but also the picture moves.

“Manifesto of sport-sacred painting
1. Paint rather than kill.
2. Principle of false starts.
3. Paint and kill.
drawn up on 4.1.61“
(Günter Brus and Alfons Schilling)

From the above literature.