Oil on canvas. Twice signed and dated as well as titled verso on the stretcher. Signed in a faint hand on the reverse of the canvas. 58 x 42 cm. . [AW].

• “Schwarz auf Blau auf Weiß” (Black on Blue on White) is one of the artist's early and most typical overpaintings from the 1950s. In it, monochrome black covers almost the picture's entire surface.
• Arnulf Rainer creates a mysterious internal structure through the materiality of the paint he applies on the canvas layer by layer with gestural brushstrokes.
• Covering the canvas with color is to be understood as a time-based process.
• Arnulf Rainer left the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna after only a few days and became an autodidact.
• In 1959, he participated in the documenta II in Kassel and the Venice Biennale in 1978 and 1980.
We are grateful to the Studio Rainer for the kind support in cataloging this lot.

Art dealer Wolfgang Werner, Berlin. Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above)

In good condition. Firmly mounted in the artist frame. Some slight cracks in the layer of paint due to the technique. The canvas is slightly wavy and has a few tiny, expertly retouched spots. The condition report was compiled in daylight and with the help of a UV light source to the best of our knowledge and belief.