Farewell to Günter Brus
The Austrian performance artist Günter Brus passed away last Saturday in Graz at the age of 85. The Kunsthaus Zug remembers his outstanding creative power.
DN: How did the connection to Günter Brus come about? MH: On 6 November 2003, I attended the opening of the Brus retrospective at the Albertina in Vienna with the artist Peter Kogler and his wife. Afterwards, the four of us sat in a bar with his wife Anna until early in the morning and had a lot of fun. Günter Brus spontaneously asked me if we would like to take his exhibition to Zug because of the Vienna connection in the collection. This was the beginning of a friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Brus. I later visited the two of them several times in Graz in connection with follow-up projects, most recently for the Gerstl exhibition in 2022. We have acquired works by him for the collection.
DN: In 2004, the Kunsthaus Zug presented the exhibition "Günter Brus – Work Circle". Brus was presented together with works by other artists. What positions shaped the exhibition at that time? MH: It was the comprehensive retrospective exhibition that was first shown at the Albertina. For Zug, curator Monika Faber and I have supplemented it with works from our own collection. Günter Brus came to the opening and was visibly pleased to see that his works held up very well next to the classics Klimt, Gerstl, Schiele and Kokoschka. In Zug, we tested what had not yet been done in Vienna: to place Brus in modern Viennese art history. So we didn't want to show him as a provocative actionist, of course, but also as a master of drawing. This is often overlooked with him. The exhibition also focused on his use of image and language. Brus invented words and concepts, played with them, also humorously; he also wrote literary books worth reading. Today it is internationally recognised and has a museum in Graz, the "Bruseum".
DN: What artistic quality did you particularly appreciate about Günter Brus? What can artists learn from him? MH: His courage, his honesty, his sensitivity, his imagination, his musicality, his stroke. For me, he was the most important Viennese Actionist, who inspired artists worldwide with his unsparing works and continues to inspire them today. In 1971 he had stopped for several reasons and dared to make a 180-degree turn back to drawing, painting and language, for which he had long been criticized. I admire that courage. You have to know when enough is enough and take the freedom to reorient yourself.
DN: On the occasion of his exhibition in 2004, Günter Brus left the following message to our Kunsthaus staff: Dear staff, Please do not go on strike during the Brus exhibition. Please do not ask for a salary increase during the Brus exhibition. Please only admit St. Bernards and no children during the Brus exhibition. Please do not suffer any injuries during the Brus exhibition. Yours, Günterli.
What message would you like to leave him?
MH: Dear Günter, we remember you very fondly. The introduction to your exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zug remains unforgettable for those who were able to be there at the time. We met an extremely lovable, modest person, who did not spare himself to help us with his abysmal and humorous art, who knew that he was not making it easy for us either. Your letter to the staff, which still hangs on the reception desk today, testifies to this. On the day of the introduction, an employee celebrated her 70th birthday. Without further ado, Günter stood on a chair in the Kunsthaus Bar and recited an endearing, previously written poem "For Erna", which he gave her! Dear Günter, I have never been able to laugh as much as with you and Anna in a few days since. Both of you were an unbeatable art of living team and gave it your all – thank you. It's nice to continue to have your art with us.