Bayreuth Walküre

About

In the summer of 2021, Hermann Nitsch was invited by the Bayreuth Festival to provide scenic accompaniment to a concert version of Richard Wagner's Walküre. On this occasion, the artist created an extensive painting campaign for the three acts of the play. Each act was accompanied by a self-contained painting action, in which the score transformed scene by scene into luminous colours. Nitsch wished to present a painting action where the colours of poured and smeared paint spanned the whole spectrum of the rainbow, attempting to compete with the blazing colouration of Wagnerian music. In Nitsch´ words, "the events of the actual act of painting are to be like music. Sounds turn into colours and Wagner's score lures me into choosing my colours."