MEIN NITSCH - curated by Karlheinz Essl
30.03.2025 - 30.11.2025

From March 30 to November 30, 2025, the new annual exhibition at the nitsch museum Mistelbach presents collector and curator Karlheinz Essl's personal view of the artist and friend Hermann Nitsch (1938-2022). The sensation of the exhibition is the “white painting”, a unique, large-format work by Hermann Nitsch from 2017, which is entirely in white and has never been on display before.

“My Nitsch” provides deep, new and extremely unusual insights into the work of the artist of the century Hermann Nitsch. Karlheinz Essl has opened up his extensive archives and private art collection for the exhibition. On display are works by Nitsch that have rarely or never been shown before.

Collector and artist have maintained an intensive correspondence. Karlheinz Essl makes previously unpublished texts by Nitsch accessible, reveals anecdotes that bring the artist closer to the public and provides insights into a long-running discourse that revolved around questions of philosophy, spirituality and existence.  

“Nitsch is undoubtedly an artist of the century. 'My Nitsch' is my very personal contribution to getting closer to him once again and showing the public a facet of him that too few people are aware of - his sensitive, thoughtful and very life-affirming side. What questions drove him? How did he deal with death? Why did his works become brighter and more colorful? I am showing Nitsch the man and the artist as you have perhaps never seen him before,” says Karlheinz Essl.

On the one hand, the exhibition is testimony to a decades-long artist-collector relationship that began in the mid-1980s. Nitsch soon became one of the most important pillars of the Essl Collection, which represents Austrian contemporary art after 1945 like no other collection. At the invitation of the Essl family, Nitsch organized his 38th painting event in 1996 in the Schömer House, the Essl family's art and company headquarters at the time, and later another event in the newly built Essl Museum. Karlheinz Essl put together a Nitsch Chapel with the artist, consisting of works from the Orgien-Mysterien-Theater, which found its way into the Essl Collection. Nitsch's works were frequently on display in the Essl Museum's exhibitions, and the collector also dedicated two solo shows to him. Beyond the classic artist-collector relationship, Hermann Nitsch and Karlheinz Essl also developed an intensive friendship. They often met privately, organized joint trips and cultivated an intensive exchange that went far beyond everyday life. Karlheinz Essl and Hermann Nitsch interviewed each other, described their world views and discussed existential questions.

The exhibition “My Nitsch”, in which Karlheinz Essl juxtaposes works from Nitsch's main creative phase as well as from the last years of his life, takes all of this into account. In 14 stations, which form the heart of the exhibition, the collector and curator combines quotes from Nitsch with artifacts from his work and pictures from different creative phases. The last works in particular, which Nitsch created shortly before his death, are characterized by intense colour. Nitsch's significance for the present is underlined by the contributions of seven renowned authors (Ann Cotten, Ana Marwan, Hanno Millesi, Alexander Peer, Michael Stavarič, Katharina Tiwald, Magda Woitzuck), who have written exclusive texts on the stations.

The large-format “white picture” is presented centrally in the exhibition. There are also videos of the 38th painting action and of Nitsch's funeral, which was also staged by him as an artistic act. A Room of Silence invites visitors to contemplate a work by Nitsch.

Hermann Nitsch

A detailed biography as well as a list of all actions, painting actions, concert performances and much more can be found at www.nitsch.org

Karlheinz Essl

is an art collector and museum founder. He founded and managed one of the largest and best-known DIY chains in Europe. Since the 1970s, together with his wife Agnes, he has built up the Essl Collection, one of the largest and most important collections of contemporary art. In 1999, he opened the Essl Museum, one of the first private art museums in Europe, where more than 200 exhibitions were on display by 2016, many of which he curated himself. In addition to international art from Europe to the USA and Asia, his exhibition and collection activities focus on Austrian art since 1945.  

The nitsch museum Mistelbach

The nitsch museum in Mistelbach, Lower Austria, is one of the largest monographic museums in Austria. It is located in the Weinviertel region, where Hermann Nitsch lived and worked, and was planned by the team of architects archipel architektur + kommunikation in consultation with Hermann Nitsch. Its architecture is based on the ideal plan of a monastery complex.

Since its opening in 2007, the extensive artistic work of Hermann Nitsch was presented in annually changing exhibitions until 2023. Since 2024, the nitsch museum has also been showing exhibitions of artists who were influenced by Hermann Nitsch, as well as juxtapositions of Hermann Nitsch's work with internationally renowned artistic personalities. The exhibitions are accompanied by panel discussions, lectures, talks and workshops.

PRESS Contact

Elke Weilharter, MAS, MAS
skyunlimited
Gumpendorfer Straße 10-12/15
1060 Wien

e: elke.weilharter[at]skyunlimited.at
t: +43 1 522 59 39
www.skyunlimited.at