Excursions to the Stage

Günter Brus has been active in the theatre since the 1970s. He has made his mark not only as a stage and costume designer, also as a playwright. This aspect of Brus’ work has now been brought together for the first time in the current BRUSEUM exhibition.

The close ties with theatre, with ‘performing art’, is no fluke: in his Actions, Brus opened up new avenues for performative art.

As in his literature, Brus seeks in his stage works to establish a pictorial language that expands narrative and depiction by means of poetical, fantastical findings, richly detailed execution and abstract symbols, adding new layers of meaning. The fairy-tale, darkly romantic cosmos, which Brus has developed since the 1970s, was of course reflected in the stage designs, and often turned the performances into outstanding events.

After attempting his own play, ‘with music in 4 acts’ (Tail Coats Only, 1976), and other sketches in the literary estate (pre-death), frequent stage and costume designs for plays and operas composed by others have followed from the 1980s onwards. The exhibition shows not only those projects that were realised, also designs and sketches for planned performances that for a range of reasons did not come to fruition. An example of this would be the décor for Arthur Schnitzler’s drama ‘The Lonely Way’ at the end of the 1970s.