The Wound in Visual Art

Abstract

The fine arts abound in images of the pierced, wounded, tortured, dismembered, crippled or decapitated body in all historical periods. The iconography of the wound is of long standing, and the passion for depicting open bodies can only be compared to the enthusiasm for the nude. In the history of painting and sculpture, the wounded body is most often represented in renditions of Christ’s Passion and Christian martyrs, as well as of Biblical stories about decapitation and slaughter. The topic of the wound has proved relevant to modern and contemporary art as well. In the second half of the 20th century, around 1965, when the Viennese Actionism appeared, as well as between 1968 and 1974, the two milestone dates of body art, artists engaged in performative practices, shattering the notions of the wounded or penetrable body which dominated at the time. What they exposed was the anxious image of the artist’s body. By analysing the art photos by Rudolf Schwarzkogler, the paper shows how the wound is materialised as a topic of visual art.