Arnulf Rainer conflated his own scribbles in oil stick over photographs of 19th-century plaster-cast reproductions of eight of Messerschmidt's Character Heads—an overt statement of the contemporary artist's enthusiasm for the 18th-century sculptor's oeuvre. Rainer called these images "conversations," through which he engaged directly with Messerschmidt's work.
Messerschmidt Series / Rainer


Banner image: The Vexed Man (detail), after 1770, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008.4. Self-Portrait after Messerschmidt (detail), 2009, Tony Bevan. Courtesy L.A. Louver, Venice, CA and Ben Brown Fine Arts, London. © Tony Bevan