Vienna Actionism Museum Faces Backlash For Otto Muehl Show

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Vienna Actionism Museum (WAM) is facing renewed controversy ahead of its fall exhibition, which features works by co-founder of Viennese Actionism, Otto Muehl. Titled“Otto Muehl: Art on the Precipice,” the show is scheduled to open on September 10 and will run through January 10, 2027. The exhibition will display 150 paintings, objects, films, and prints, drawing from the museum's own extensive collection and loans from private collectors.

WAM, which opened in March 2024, has been contentious since its inception, reflecting the postwar movement's often violent and graphic performance art. The new controversy surrounding the Muehl retrospective extends beyond the artist's use of graphic nudity, violence, blood, and excrement in his work, which many find distasteful. Muehl also founded a notorious commune in Friedrichshof, near Vienna, which operated in the 1970s and '80s. He was convicted in 1991 of sexual offenses against minors, rape, and illegal drug use, serving seven years in prison before moving to Portugal, where he died in 2013.

The current dispute, highlighted in two articles published earlier this month in the daily newspaper Der Standard, centers on the insensitive marketing of the exhibition. Survivors of the Friedrichshof commune have criticized the museum for downplaying Muehl's criminal past in favor of the art historical significance of his“perpetrator art.” The Der Standard articles question the feasibility of separating“the life of the cult leader and his art” and challenge the ethics of an exhibition that could boost the market for Muehl's work.

The Vienna Actionism Museum acknowledges that an Otto Muehl retrospective is a“challenging project.” The museum's press release states that the exhibition will not include images depicting abuse or works from his 1986 painting series“Accidents in the Home,” which featured teenage victims posing in scenes of domestic violence. WAM also asserts that all recognizable subjects have given permission for their inclusion, although Der Standard has raised doubts about how consent was obtained from the heirs of identifiable figures. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of WAM and former director of the Albertina, expressed his hope that visitors would feel empowered“to form their own judgments regarding Otto Muehl's art.”

Source: ARTnews

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