Versumpfung Einer Venus 10 1963

Editor: This arresting black and white photograph documents Otto Muehl’s 1963 performance, "Versumpfung Einer Venus 10.” The textures seem really intense; you can almost feel the slop and mess. What can you tell me about the materials and how they’re being used here? Curator: Well, let’s start with the obvious. We have a body, probably nude or semi-nude, completely covered in what looks like paint, or maybe plaster, or some other malleable, messy substance. Consider the performance itself as a material, then the space – this studio or perhaps a cellar - and the black and white photography serving to freeze this act. What happens when we think of the artist using the body as a kind of sculptural material? Editor: It makes me think about control, or the lack of it. Like he's wrestling with something. And why call it “Venus?” That's so loaded! Curator: Precisely. Think of Venus, the goddess of beauty, the idealised female form. Muehl is literally ‘swamping’ her, or perhaps a representation of her. It is also critical to consider that the labor itself, the performance, is meant for the camera, isn't it? The means of production become a spectacle. We're witnessing not just the action, but its documentation, thus adding another layer to its significance. How do you think this photograph challenges the art market's traditional preferences for 'high art'? Editor: Because it feels raw, unfiltered. Nothing about it seems precious or designed to be bought and sold easily. Curator: It refuses that polish, that easy consumption. By foregrounding the material process and its gritty reality, Muehl's "Versumpfung Einer Venus" throws a wrench into our conventional understanding of both art and its making, as well as the societal constructs of the feminine ideal. Editor: I never thought about a photo being about the making of something! It definitely pushes my ideas of what art can be. Curator: And hopefully, how we analyze art as a whole! There's more to be unearthed if you dig a bit deeper than the superficial beauty or "obvious" subjects.