Bloody Art

Hermann Nitsch, by Graeme Moran.

With Halloween approaching, many of us will be smearing on bucket-loads of (fake) blood in search of that perfect ‘zombie’ look. However, for some in the art world, the use of blood is a much more frequent occurrence.
Controversial Austrian painter and performance artist Hermann Nitsch uses the real thing, either animal or human, mixed with paint to create epic, blood-stained works of art. His pieces are similar to Jackson Pollock’s famous ‘splatter paintings’, only x-rated versions that resemble the goriest of crime scenes.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: what sort of sane person would use blood to paint a picture?! But the artistic use of this grisly liquid, although somewhat strange, is actually packed with meaning and quite literally drips with symbolism.
Amongst references to dark religious rituals and sacrificial offerings, Nitsch uses blood as the perfect material to visually express violence. Everything about the gory substance suggests pain and passion, cruelty and carnage – elements which the Austrian painter attempts to channel into his work. His technique of dripping and splashing paint gives the art a primitive energy – capturing the force of violence. Nitsch’s trademark spray of crimson paint over white canvas is suggestive of violent acts – a dramatic sensation that is heightened by the use of real blood. In fact, only by using the actual substance does he succeed in giving the work its truly disturbing and violent edge.
In using blood, Nitsch is commenting upon our culture’s morbid fascination with violence, as seen on news channels, computer games and movie screens across the world. In many ways, the controversial artist is holding violence up to us, confronting us with the bloody leftovers of the violence that we consume each day.
What is more, the use of blood can be understood as a form of absolute creativity. Like many artists who use their hair, urine or semen in their work, Nitsch takes personal creativity to a whole other level. By mixing his own blood into the paint, he is literally putting a piece of himself into the work, becoming his own paint. In this sense, one could say that using this creepy substance as an artistic material is actually just an extreme exercise in creativity.
You may still be reading this thinking that the use of blood in art is a strange practice. On the other hand, you may see it as a powerful and interestingly unsettling metaphor. Either way, it cannot be denied that standing before a painting that’s splattered with gallons of real blood is a strangely unnerving experience – a sensation that you don’t often feel when walking around an art gallery…  By Graeme Moran.

Click HERE to visit Nitsch's website