Ohne Titel (Mutter und Kind), 1985

About the Work

As one of the main figures of Viennese Actionism, Otto Muehl attracted attention by founding the Action-Analytical Organisation, a commune which settled in Friedrichshof, in Austria's Burgenland, in 1974. The commune led an experimental lifestyle characterised by shared property, freely expressed sexuality and the overcoming of the father-mother principle. Muehl's dense pictorial work, produced from the mid-1970s onwards, must be seen in this context. In his painting 'Untitled (Mother and Child)' he reproduces a situation in which two human children are shown sucking at their mother's breasts at the same time, like little piglets. This alienation and also the mother's body, which is out of proportion, are not simply the artistic response to life in the commune. In their radicality with regard to painting technique and content, Muehl's pictures served as role models for the generation of the Junge Wilde (Wild Youth), especially Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger.