Arnulf Rainer, the best-known Austrian artist in the post-war art world, carved out a completely new direction in European art with his overpaintings. Between 1995 and 1998 Rainer produced his remarkable sequence of Bible illustrations, in which he responded to originals ranging from 10th-century illustrated manuscripts to the art of the 19th century, drawing on works by Giotto and Sandro Botticelli, by Giovanni Bellini and William Blake, on Romanesque ceiling decorations and Gothic stained-glass windows, on miniatures from early sources like the highly illuminated Wenceslas Bible, on woodcuts from 14th century incunabula and on the Bible illustrated by Gustave Doré published in 1868. In his responses Rainer displays the full spectrum of his fascinating palette of overpainting techniques - from the most delicate of overdrawings to dense overpaintings which virtually obliterate the original. In this volume all 160 of Arnulf Rainer's cycle of Bible illustrations are reproduced in large-format plates accompanied by texts from the Authorized Version of the Bible from 1611 as well as informative art-historical data and detailed commentaries on the reworkings. In addition, essays by leading experts in the field address not only the art-historical aspects of these works but also the theological background to Arnulf Rainer's biblical overpaintings. (English edition available ISBN 3-7757-0971-1, German edition available ISBN 3-7757-0969-X) The artist: Arnulf Rainer, born 1929 at Baden near Vienna. In 1949 acceptance to the University for Applied Arts in Vienna, which Rainer leaves after only one day. Subsequently acceptance at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, which Rainer attends for three days. In 1978, he receives the "Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis" award "in honor of his oeuvre" in the "area of Fine Arts". From 1981- 1995 professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.
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