Poured Painting

1963
oil on canvas

Style/Movement: Experimental, 20th Century

Purchased 1981

T03334

Poured Painting was made by aggressively throwing and pouring bright red paint directly from the tin onto a large rectangular piece of sacking fixed to the wall, evoking associations of splattered and dripping blood. Nitsch made other paintings in the series by pouring paint onto the floor, or by rolling his body in it. He often used red paint and blood in his performances, which were highly ritualistic and often violent, invoking extreme emotional and psychological states.
(From the display caption July 2008)