Vienna's Actionist artists fete the body as their canvas

Vienna

AS artists, they pushed the limits, bathing in blood, mud and urine. Vienna's famed "Actionists", whose avant-garde movement may be the most radical in contemporary art, are the focus of a new exhibition in their home city.

The movement emerged in the 1960s as part of the new performance-based art, which broke with the confines of traditional painting and used the body as both surface and site of art-making.

"Vienna Actionism" shied away from little - and sometimes landed the artists in jail. They sought a direct confrontation with reality, both physical and psychological, to limits that were very difficult to tolerate," said Eva Badu…