Versumpfung Einer Venus 5 1963

Otto Muehl made this photograph of paint being applied to a person. The grey scale limits our sense of colour but it enhances our sense of mark making and the thickness of the paint. Muehl's physicality is very apparent. Look at the globs of paint as it congeals over the figure’s body; the thickness and mess of the application. It's hard to say exactly what kind of tool he uses to apply it, but the paint seems pushed on with a palette knife. This isn’t just about representing something; it's about the physical act of transformation. I wonder if Muehl knew the earlier work of Yves Klein when he made this piece. Both Klein and Muehl explore painting that goes beyond the canvas. It's a kind of body art, performance art, and painting all rolled into one messy, beautiful package. It's a process that embraces ambiguity, leaving us with more questions than answers.