Hermann Nitsch was celebrated and reviled in equal measure as he took the semblance of a pagan ceremony and incorporated robed processions, symbolic crucifixion, drunken excess, nudity, animal sacrifice, the drinking of blood, and the ritualistic incorporation of viscera and entrails. Even today, his audiences aren't mere visitors, but active participants in his artistic liturgies.



Hermann Nitsch's work draws parallels between religion and the ritualistic spiritualism of creativity. Heavily entrenched in ancient philosophy and a dissident, questioning Christian theology, he actively seeks catharsis through pain and compassion, a rigorously disciplined quest for ethereal release and enlightenment through an embracing of primal instinct and ancient sacrament.Hermann Nitsch presents a monumental collage. In his panel of bedazzling candy-coloured pop, images of babies sit alongside animal carcasses, flowers, and sexual perversion, in an unlikely remix reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg's combines. Borrowing from the geometric design of the era, Hermann Nitsch's grid-like display lies somewhere between science textbook precision and the impassioned fervour of a religious zealot; pain and pleasure are united in a work which is the epitome of middle-class subversion and corrupted decadence.

Hermann Nitsch originally conceived and mounted at the French Cultural Centre in Milan. Based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous fresco (housed in the same city), Hermann Nitsch's performative response was finalised as an installation consisting of a table, surrounded by twelve pictures, and a large canvas symbolic of Christ.In this drawing, Hermann Nitsch works through his conception of the Christian story of betrayal, repentance, and forgiveness. Depicting each figure as an anatomical diagram, he plays on the concept of the Eucharist: spiritual cleansing through the eating of blood and flesh.The Christ figure in the centre is rendered in red as an emanating energy force; neither good nor evil, his face is a skull-like mask bearing the inane mischievous grin of a Mona Lisa smile.