A Drawing by Günter Brus

Günter Brus is one of the most significant and radical figures of Viennese Actionism. In his later years, his work increasingly shifted to paper, resulting in visual poetry, pure poetry, and pure drawings. Positioned between provocation and reflection, his works powerfully demonstrate how art can serve as a means of self-exploration and social critique. The drawing presented here, created in 1979, depicts Saint Hemma, who is clasped by a creature. Figures in Brus’ work often oscillate between suffering and transcendental significance. His depictions of saints or historical figures are rarely conventional portraits; rather, they are expressive reinterpretations that deconstruct their symbolic meaning.