Online publication, 2021
OTTO MUEHL
Biography by Violaine Roussies, 2020
This biography of Otto Muehl concentrates on his artistic career and records his creative work as well as his encounters with state authorities and the scandals which these led to.
1925
Born June 16, 1925 in Grodnau – Oberschützen (Austria).
Mother: Wilhelmine Muehl.
Father: Otto Muehl, elementary school teacher in Grodnau and Gols, choirmaster.
1943 - 1945
Drafted into the Reich’s Labour Service at age 18, followed by officer training.
Paints a mural “Habanera” (the Fall of Pompei) on the wall of the barracks at Olmuetz
Writes, influenced by J.W. Goethe.
1945
Taken prisoner by Russian forces but escapes after four days by hiding in a shot-up car in the forest and then returning to Austria by foot. (thence his love for destroyed objects)
1946-1952
Matriculation exam in Wiener Neustadt.
Attends dance classes and takes piano lessons
Two semesters of law studies at the University of Vienna
1947
Switches to studying German and History
Writes plays,novels,poems.
1952
Teacher’s exam for German and History at the University of Vienna.
1953 - 1957
Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Prof. Gerda Mateijka-Felden
From 1954 onwards, he attends lectures on the “Morphology of Fine Art” given by Heimo Kuchling (a colleague of Fritz Wotruba), which dealt with proportion and pictorial composition.
Studies and analyses the methods of van Gogh, Cezanne, Juan Gris, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Leonardo de Vinci.
Studies art education.
1954-57
Drawing teacher in a City of Vienna therapy home.
1955 - 1960
Travels to exhibitions and cultural sites, to Rome-Florence-Venice, Zurich (Beckmann) - Bern (Juan Gris) - Basel (Mondrian), Paris-Southern France, Munich (Picasso, Cezanne, van Gogh), Amsterdam, London, Luxor in Egypt.
1958 – 1964
Art therapist at the JRC children’s home and the Child Guidance Clinic in Vienna, whose director, the psychoanalyst Eva Rosenfeld had been an analysand of Sigmund Freud and a friend of Anna Freud.
1960
First solo exhibition in the Galerie Junge Generation in Vienna
Meets Günter Brus und Alfons Schilling
Material paintings
1960-1970 VIENNESE ACTIONISM
1960 - 1970
Correspondence with Erika Stocker.
1961
Further travels to view art exhibitions
Basel: Pollock, De Kooning, Tapies
Zürich: Staël, Soulages, Appel
Wintertur: Kandinsky
The years 1960 to 1964 are marked by his critical examinations of informal sculpture and abstract painting, derived from the New York School, and the positions of Milares, Burri and Tapies.
In the early 60s he develops event-based artworks (actions) in which the body itself and organic materials, such as foodstuffs, transport aesthetic and politically emancipatory acts (Hubert Klocker)
1961
Destruction of Panel Painting – Breakthrough: from the picture plane into three dimensional space
“Overcoming panel painting by depicting the process of its destruction” OM. Creation of what he calls “junk sculptures”: rhizomatic structures from scrap materials, often suspended from the ceiling and spanning several rooms.
Meets Hermann Nitsch.
1962
“Blutorgel” (Blood Organ) three-day “immurement” with Hermann Nitsch and Adolf Frohner, Perinetkeller.
1963-1973
Carries out a total of 95 material actions, which are documented in photography and film.
A selection of subvervise actions which led to state intervention:
1963
“Fest des psycho-physischen Naturalismus” (Festival of Psycho-Physical Naturalism). Stopped by the police – 14 days arrest.
First MATERIAL ACTION: “Versumpfung einer Venus” (Enmiring of a Venus) in the Perinetkeller, Vienna.
1964
Material action No. 6 “Destruktion eines weiblichen Körpers” (Destruction of a Female Body) in jazz club “Chattanooga” on April 14, 1964. Stopped by the police.
1966
Intensive collaboration with Günter Brus
e.g. “Vietnamparty” at the Perinetkeller, Vienna.
Participates in the Destruction in Art Symposium DIAS in London
Founding of the “Institut für direkte Kunst”, later “Direct Art Group”.
1967 - 1970
Writes various programmatic texts in which he expounds a radical critic of the social system
1967
Writes the “ZOCK aspekte einer totalrevolution”
Collaboration with Ossi Wiener. Zock-Fest
Press scandal, event stopped by the police.
Screenprint series: “Persönlichkeiten” (Personalities).
1968
“Kunst und Revolution” (Art and Revolution) at the University of Vienna with Günter Brus, Oswald Wiener, Peter Weibel, Franz Kaltenbäck and the Direct Art Group
Sentenced to a two month prison sentence
1969
“O Tannenbaum” at the State University of Fine Arts Braunschweig.
Scandal – Citizens‘ initiative with collection of signatures protesting the event.
The director of the art school is dismissed.
1970
Participation in “Happening and Fluxus” in Cologne, curated by Harald Szeemann,
Manopsychotic 1 & 2 with Charlotte Moorman.
“Advent Advent !” University of Education Bremen – scandal.
Silkscreen print portfolio: “12 Actions Portfolio”
1971
Release of the LP record “Psychomotorik”
1973
Last public action at Ohio State University in Columbus. The police intervene on hygienic grounds : that raw meat is being distributed on university premises.
1970 - 1990 COMMUNE Friedrichshof (AAO)
Actionism should permeate life itself.
In 1970 he founds a commune that became well-known outside of the art scene because of its radicalism.
This step signifies his rejection of the exhibition system and the art market . He sees the content and purpose of his art production in connection with the social utopia of the Actions Analytical Commune (AAO: Actions Analytical Organisation). Art should cross over into life and is considered to be one of the most important pillars in the concept of the commune.
The principles of the commune were: self-expression, common property, free sexuality without fixed couple relationships, shared work and production, collective raising of children and direct democracy.
The commune begins in his flat in the Praterstraße in Vienna, 1972 and in 1974 moves to the countryside with the acquisition of the Friedrichshof in Burgenland. The number of communards increases up to 600, ending with 350 members and 100 children.
Over the years, his role changed from that of founder and artist, who regarded the commune as his most important work, to that of an uncontested authority. Drug use and sexual violations led in 1990 to Otto Muehl’s indictment and arrest and the dissolution of the commune.
He led daily life drawing classes as well as the so-called SD evenings (self-expression evenings)* see glossary.
„For a good ten years, art, especially actionist art, was a cornerstone of the functioning of the group. In individual and group therapy (actions analysis, self-expression) as well as in the sociopolitical functioning of the commune (hierarchy games, women’s liberation…). Art, in a sense, played the same role as that of religion in the development of tribes and states, the difference being that it remained rooted within the framework of artistic activity, even when supported (in an actionist sense) by the social group and the individual. The artistic activity consisted of the creation and organisation of the social group.” (Cedric Hay)
From the 80s onwards the group’s organisation changes, and social problems are addressed in “palavers”.
The thematic, content-focused exploration of theindividual’s own mental problems, needs, emotions and the networks of social relationships give way to a period of formal experimentation
Individual art media are explored. (Dance, theatre, performance, music, singing, instrumental orchestration, rhetoric, philosophical discourses, recitation of poems, video material actions and films.)
Here Otto Muehl’s role changes from that of “therapist” to that of “professor”, who together with his students explores ways in which they could become “self-creators”.
1973
Participates with other communards in Makavejev’s film “Sweet Movie” in Paris
1974-1983
Resumes painting : oil painting, gouaches, watercolours, drawings and screenprints.
The subject matter is directly related to life in the commune, and to themes derived from actions analysis: symbolic parricide, depictions of aggression, sexuality, mother/child, musicians, dancing figures.
In his paintings, he is inspired by and extends the concepts of other artists : van Gogh (colour and energy), Cezanne (elementarisation and abstract structuring of the canvas), Picasso (destruction of form), Magritte (surrealist collage elements), De Kooning (abstract gestural), Gauguin (colour, flat colour application and subject matter).
1977
Writes an autobiography “Weg aus dem Sumpf” (Way Out of the Mire)
1978
Writes a surrealist novel: “die wilden 60er” (The Wild Sixties)
1980
Writes “Menschenbehandlung von Joe Carner”, (“How to treat people by Joe Carner”), invents the “Goggi dance” (a dance to jazz music, that combines boogie woogie, swing and tapdance steps with self-expressive elements and theatrically exaggerated gestures.
from 1983
Many films are made at Friedrichshof. Close collaboration with Terese Schulmeister – work on, among others, Vincent (van Gogh), Picasso, Back to Fucking Cambridge („A film about Vienna at the turn of the Century“ with Richard Gerstl as its main character)
His painting is closely connected to the films: many works are ironical paraphrases of works by the highly idealised artist figures revered in conventional bourgeois conceptions of art.
Theo Altenberg set up an art office which dealt Muehl's art market presence
He makes many music recordings in which he sings and plays the piano. Experimental music evenings take place.
1986
“Foto-SD” (Photographed self-expression) period and Accidents in the Home:
He creates placative pictures in pastel colours with clear contours based on staged photographs.
1987
Following the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the commune acquires the bay “El Cabrito” on the Canary Island of La Gomera. Muehl lives and works there mainly during the winter months, in his “Atelier del Sur”.
Here he creates brightly coloured landscapes and portraits.
1988 – 1991
Abstract, gestural, energetic painting, as well as material and structural studies (spin paintings, paintings done with a broom, splatter and drip paintings, slide and stomp paintings, imprint paintings, smear and fold paintings, squeegee and sandwich paintings).
1989
Screenprint series: Politicians
Van Goghs Portraits
1990
Screenprint series: Warhol – Gymnastic Poses
Films: “Jesus” and “Andy’s Cake - Stories from Andy Warhol’s Factory”
After the initiation of preliminary investigations against Muehl and increasing discontent amongst the communards, the entire property of the commune is transferred into a cooperative.
He is arrested and taken into custody on June 17, 1991
1991
Dissolution of the commune experiment Friedrichshof
“Divorce” of 300 people
Muehl und twelve communards are put on trial.
He is father of 9 children born between 1974 - 1990
1991 – 1997 PRISON
1991
Trial on November 13, 1991, at the Austrian regional court in Eisenstadt
Verdict: Seven years imprisonment for “criminal offences against morality and the narcotics law… sexual intercourse and fornication with minors, moral endangerment of persons under the age of 16, abuse of authority, distribution of narcotics”.
1991-1997
Extensive correspondance with partners and friends. Interviews with Danielle Roussel, who became manager for his art – a selection of which is published in “Letters from prison”
Intensive painting. Initially the motives are : the cell,other prisoners,the court etc. As of 1992 flat motives with clear contours. The subject matter is now Marcel Duchamps Fountain,sexual longing,death,coprophagy,Austrian politics.
1991 – 1993
Eisenstadt Prison
Paints in his cell and works part-time in the prison library
1993 – 1996
Stein Detention Centre, Krems an der Donau
Death of his mother at age 95.
Because of a delayed glaucoma surgery on his right eye Otto Muehl loses two thirds of his sight.
Commission for three flags from the detention centre for the international flag exhibition in Krems. From this point onwards he is permitted to paint on canvas in a studio.
1996
He undergoes hospital treatment for his right eye and prostata and is transferred to Mittersteig Prison in Vienna
1997
Release from prison after 6½ years due to a general amnesty.
1998 - 2013 ART – LIFE - ALGARVE
Lives in the Atelier Algarve (Portugal), established by a group of 24 communards & twelve children after the dissolution of the Friedrichshof commune.
1998 – 2005
Travels to exhibitions of his works and for speaking engagements in Paris, Nantes, Dijon, London, Vienna, Hamburg.
1998
“Apokalypse, keinen Keks heute” (Apocalypse, no cookies today): political collage consisting of nine canvases for the exhibition “100 YEARS OF SECESSION”) Paint is thrown at the work and an Austrian court forbids the exhibition of the work arguing that it violates rights to personal privacy
“Muchl”, Claus Peymann invites him to write and to perform in Muchl, a short play performed at the Burgtheater Vienna.
2000
Negotiations with the Friedrichshof cooperative; in a settlement part of his artistic work is returned to him.
Screenprint series: self portrait with an axe and other motifs
2002
Establishment of a Foundation, which owns his private colelction, and is represented by the Archives Otto Muehl.
Aims of the foundation: Preservation and maintenance of the collection, promotion of social experiments, support for art and artistic projects and institutions for the disabled.
2002-2012
He resumes actionist performances, which are preserved in photographic images
He develops ELECTRIC PAINTINGS: digital photos of actions, painted on the computer, and made into films.
2005
Paints excess art objects with paint poured on the canvas directly from the paint can.
2006
The increasing severity of his Parkinson’s disease means he needs more assistance from the Art Life Family. Violaine Roussies, his main partner, assistant and muse, is by his side until the end.
2007
The ban against showing “Apokalypse, keinen Keks heute” is lifted – it is the first case in which the European Court of Human Rights found an infringement of artistic freedom of expression and censorship!
2008
Interview and filming for the biographical film “BECOMING OTTO”, Selenium Films Production
"psychogrammatic painting"
2010
He turns 85.
Exhibitions in Vienna at, among others, Leopold Museum, MAK – premiere of “becoming otto”.
In a public letter, he apologises to the children of the commune
2011
Last MATERIAL ACTION "body-yes” on the occasion of his 86th birthday.
19.4.2013
Paints his last painting
26.5.2013
Otto Muehl dies peacefully surrounded by his Art Life Family in Moncarapacho / Portugal.
1925
Born June 16, 1925 in Grodnau – Oberschützen (Austria).
Mother: Wilhelmine Muehl.
Father: Otto Muehl, elementary school teacher in Grodnau and Gols, choirmaster.
1943 - 1945
Drafted into the Reich’s Labour Service at age 18, followed by officer training.
Paints a mural “Habanera” (the Fall of Pompei) on the wall of the barracks at Olmuetz
Writes, influenced by J.W. Goethe.
1945
Taken prisoner by Russian forces but escapes after four days by hiding in a shot-up car in the forest and then returning to Austria by foot. (thence his love for destroyed objects)
1946-1952
Matriculation exam in Wiener Neustadt.
Attends dance classes and takes piano lessons
Two semesters of law studies at the University of Vienna
1947
Switches to studying German and History
Writes plays,novels,poems.
1952
Teacher’s exam for German and History at the University of Vienna.
1953 - 1957
Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Prof. Gerda Mateijka-Felden
From 1954 onwards, he attends lectures on the “Morphology of Fine Art” given by Heimo Kuchling (a colleague of Fritz Wotruba), which dealt with proportion and pictorial composition.
Studies and analyses the methods of van Gogh, Cezanne, Juan Gris, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Leonardo de Vinci.
Studies art education.
1954-57
Drawing teacher in a City of Vienna therapy home.
1955 - 1960
Travels to exhibitions and cultural sites, to Rome-Florence-Venice, Zurich (Beckmann) - Bern (Juan Gris) - Basel (Mondrian), Paris-Southern France, Munich (Picasso, Cezanne, van Gogh), Amsterdam, London, Luxor in Egypt.
1958 – 1964
Art therapist at the JRC children’s home and the Child Guidance Clinic in Vienna, whose director, the psychoanalyst Eva Rosenfeld had been an analysand of Sigmund Freud and a friend of Anna Freud.
1960
First solo exhibition in the Galerie Junge Generation in Vienna
Meets Günter Brus und Alfons Schilling
Material paintings
1960-1970 VIENNESE ACTIONISM
1960 - 1970
Correspondence with Erika Stocker.
1961
Further travels to view art exhibitions
Basel: Pollock, De Kooning, Tapies
Zürich: Staël, Soulages, Appel
Wintertur: Kandinsky
The years 1960 to 1964 are marked by his critical examinations of informal sculpture and abstract painting, derived from the New York School, and the positions of Milares, Burri and Tapies.
In the early 60s he develops event-based artworks (actions) in which the body itself and organic materials, such as foodstuffs, transport aesthetic and politically emancipatory acts (Hubert Klocker)
1961
Destruction of Panel Painting – Breakthrough: from the picture plane into three dimensional space
“Overcoming panel painting by depicting the process of its destruction” OM. Creation of what he calls “junk sculptures”: rhizomatic structures from scrap materials, often suspended from the ceiling and spanning several rooms.
Meets Hermann Nitsch.
1962
“Blutorgel” (Blood Organ) three-day “immurement” with Hermann Nitsch and Adolf Frohner, Perinetkeller.
1963-1973
Carries out a total of 95 material actions, which are documented in photography and film.
A selection of subvervise actions which led to state intervention:
1963
“Fest des psycho-physischen Naturalismus” (Festival of Psycho-Physical Naturalism). Stopped by the police – 14 days arrest.
First MATERIAL ACTION: “Versumpfung einer Venus” (Enmiring of a Venus) in the Perinetkeller, Vienna.
1964
Material action No. 6 “Destruktion eines weiblichen Körpers” (Destruction of a Female Body) in jazz club “Chattanooga” on April 14, 1964. Stopped by the police.
1966
Intensive collaboration with Günter Brus
e.g. “Vietnamparty” at the Perinetkeller, Vienna.
Participates in the Destruction in Art Symposium DIAS in London
Founding of the “Institut für direkte Kunst”, later “Direct Art Group”.
1967 - 1970
Writes various programmatic texts in which he expounds a radical critic of the social system
1967
Writes the “ZOCK aspekte einer totalrevolution”
Collaboration with Ossi Wiener. Zock-Fest
Press scandal, event stopped by the police.
Screenprint series: “Persönlichkeiten” (Personalities).
1968
“Kunst und Revolution” (Art and Revolution) at the University of Vienna with Günter Brus, Oswald Wiener, Peter Weibel, Franz Kaltenbäck and the Direct Art Group
Sentenced to a two month prison sentence
1969
“O Tannenbaum” at the State University of Fine Arts Braunschweig.
Scandal – Citizens‘ initiative with collection of signatures protesting the event.
The director of the art school is dismissed.
1970
Participation in “Happening and Fluxus” in Cologne, curated by Harald Szeemann,
Manopsychotic 1 & 2 with Charlotte Moorman.
“Advent Advent !” University of Education Bremen – scandal.
Silkscreen print portfolio: “12 Actions Portfolio”
1971
Release of the LP record “Psychomotorik”
1973
Last public action at Ohio State University in Columbus. The police intervene on hygienic grounds : that raw meat is being distributed on university premises.
1970 - 1990 COMMUNE Friedrichshof (AAO)
Actionism should permeate life itself.
In 1970 he founds a commune that became well-known outside of the art scene because of its radicalism.
This step signifies his rejection of the exhibition system and the art market . He sees the content and purpose of his art production in connection with the social utopia of the Actions Analytical Commune (AAO: Actions Analytical Organisation). Art should cross over into life and is considered to be one of the most important pillars in the concept of the commune.
The principles of the commune were: self-expression, common property, free sexuality without fixed couple relationships, shared work and production, collective raising of children and direct democracy.
The commune begins in his flat in the Praterstraße in Vienna, 1972 and in 1974 moves to the countryside with the acquisition of the Friedrichshof in Burgenland. The number of communards increases up to 600, ending with 350 members and 100 children.
Over the years, his role changed from that of founder and artist, who regarded the commune as his most important work, to that of an uncontested authority. Drug use and sexual violations led in 1990 to Otto Muehl’s indictment and arrest and the dissolution of the commune.
He led daily life drawing classes as well as the so-called SD evenings (self-expression evenings)* see glossary.
„For a good ten years, art, especially actionist art, was a cornerstone of the functioning of the group. In individual and group therapy (actions analysis, self-expression) as well as in the sociopolitical functioning of the commune (hierarchy games, women’s liberation…). Art, in a sense, played the same role as that of religion in the development of tribes and states, the difference being that it remained rooted within the framework of artistic activity, even when supported (in an actionist sense) by the social group and the individual. The artistic activity consisted of the creation and organisation of the social group.” (Cedric Hay)
From the 80s onwards the group’s organisation changes, and social problems are addressed in “palavers”.
The thematic, content-focused exploration of theindividual’s own mental problems, needs, emotions and the networks of social relationships give way to a period of formal experimentation
Individual art media are explored. (Dance, theatre, performance, music, singing, instrumental orchestration, rhetoric, philosophical discourses, recitation of poems, video material actions and films.)
Here Otto Muehl’s role changes from that of “therapist” to that of “professor”, who together with his students explores ways in which they could become “self-creators”.
1973
Participates with other communards in Makavejev’s film “Sweet Movie” in Paris
1974-1983
Resumes painting : oil painting, gouaches, watercolours, drawings and screenprints.
The subject matter is directly related to life in the commune, and to themes derived from actions analysis: symbolic parricide, depictions of aggression, sexuality, mother/child, musicians, dancing figures.
In his paintings, he is inspired by and extends the concepts of other artists : van Gogh (colour and energy), Cezanne (elementarisation and abstract structuring of the canvas), Picasso (destruction of form), Magritte (surrealist collage elements), De Kooning (abstract gestural), Gauguin (colour, flat colour application and subject matter).
1977
Writes an autobiography “Weg aus dem Sumpf” (Way Out of the Mire)
1978
Writes a surrealist novel: “die wilden 60er” (The Wild Sixties)
1980
Writes “Menschenbehandlung von Joe Carner”, (“How to treat people by Joe Carner”), invents the “Goggi dance” (a dance to jazz music, that combines boogie woogie, swing and tapdance steps with self-expressive elements and theatrically exaggerated gestures.
from 1983
Many films are made at Friedrichshof. Close collaboration with Terese Schulmeister – work on, among others, Vincent (van Gogh), Picasso, Back to Fucking Cambridge („A film about Vienna at the turn of the Century“ with Richard Gerstl as its main character)
His painting is closely connected to the films: many works are ironical paraphrases of works by the highly idealised artist figures revered in conventional bourgeois conceptions of art.
Theo Altenberg set up an art office which dealt Muehl's art market presence
He makes many music recordings in which he sings and plays the piano. Experimental music evenings take place.
1986
“Foto-SD” (Photographed self-expression) period and Accidents in the Home:
He creates placative pictures in pastel colours with clear contours based on staged photographs.
1987
Following the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the commune acquires the bay “El Cabrito” on the Canary Island of La Gomera. Muehl lives and works there mainly during the winter months, in his “Atelier del Sur”.
Here he creates brightly coloured landscapes and portraits.
1988 – 1991
Abstract, gestural, energetic painting, as well as material and structural studies (spin paintings, paintings done with a broom, splatter and drip paintings, slide and stomp paintings, imprint paintings, smear and fold paintings, squeegee and sandwich paintings).
1989
Screenprint series: Politicians
Van Goghs Portraits
1990
Screenprint series: Warhol – Gymnastic Poses
Films: “Jesus” and “Andy’s Cake - Stories from Andy Warhol’s Factory”
After the initiation of preliminary investigations against Muehl and increasing discontent amongst the communards, the entire property of the commune is transferred into a cooperative.
He is arrested and taken into custody on June 17, 1991
1991
Dissolution of the commune experiment Friedrichshof
“Divorce” of 300 people
Muehl und twelve communards are put on trial.
He is father of 9 children born between 1974 - 1990
1991 – 1997 PRISON
1991
Trial on November 13, 1991, at the Austrian regional court in Eisenstadt
Verdict: Seven years imprisonment for “criminal offences against morality and the narcotics law… sexual intercourse and fornication with minors, moral endangerment of persons under the age of 16, abuse of authority, distribution of narcotics”.
1991-1997
Extensive correspondance with partners and friends. Interviews with Danielle Roussel, who became manager for his art – a selection of which is published in “Letters from prison”
Intensive painting. Initially the motives are : the cell,other prisoners,the court etc. As of 1992 flat motives with clear contours. The subject matter is now Marcel Duchamps Fountain,sexual longing,death,coprophagy,Austrian politics.
1991 – 1993
Eisenstadt Prison
Paints in his cell and works part-time in the prison library
1993 – 1996
Stein Detention Centre, Krems an der Donau
Death of his mother at age 95.
Because of a delayed glaucoma surgery on his right eye Otto Muehl loses two thirds of his sight.
Commission for three flags from the detention centre for the international flag exhibition in Krems. From this point onwards he is permitted to paint on canvas in a studio.
1996
He undergoes hospital treatment for his right eye and prostata and is transferred to Mittersteig Prison in Vienna
1997
Release from prison after 6½ years due to a general amnesty.
1998 - 2013 ART – LIFE - ALGARVE
Lives in the Atelier Algarve (Portugal), established by a group of 24 communards & twelve children after the dissolution of the Friedrichshof commune.
1998 – 2005
Travels to exhibitions of his works and for speaking engagements in Paris, Nantes, Dijon, London, Vienna, Hamburg.
1998
“Apokalypse, keinen Keks heute” (Apocalypse, no cookies today): political collage consisting of nine canvases for the exhibition “100 YEARS OF SECESSION”) Paint is thrown at the work and an Austrian court forbids the exhibition of the work arguing that it violates rights to personal privacy
“Muchl”, Claus Peymann invites him to write and to perform in Muchl, a short play performed at the Burgtheater Vienna.
2000
Negotiations with the Friedrichshof cooperative; in a settlement part of his artistic work is returned to him.
Screenprint series: self portrait with an axe and other motifs
2002
Establishment of a Foundation, which owns his private colelction, and is represented by the Archives Otto Muehl.
Aims of the foundation: Preservation and maintenance of the collection, promotion of social experiments, support for art and artistic projects and institutions for the disabled.
2002-2012
He resumes actionist performances, which are preserved in photographic images
He develops ELECTRIC PAINTINGS: digital photos of actions, painted on the computer, and made into films.
2005
Paints excess art objects with paint poured on the canvas directly from the paint can.
2006
The increasing severity of his Parkinson’s disease means he needs more assistance from the Art Life Family. Violaine Roussies, his main partner, assistant and muse, is by his side until the end.
2007
The ban against showing “Apokalypse, keinen Keks heute” is lifted – it is the first case in which the European Court of Human Rights found an infringement of artistic freedom of expression and censorship!
2008
Interview and filming for the biographical film “BECOMING OTTO”, Selenium Films Production
"psychogrammatic painting"
2010
He turns 85.
Exhibitions in Vienna at, among others, Leopold Museum, MAK – premiere of “becoming otto”.
In a public letter, he apologises to the children of the commune
2011
Last MATERIAL ACTION "body-yes” on the occasion of his 86th birthday.
19.4.2013
Paints his last painting
26.5.2013
Otto Muehl dies peacefully surrounded by his Art Life Family in Moncarapacho / Portugal.