Image sacrificielle et imitatio Christi chez Arnulf Rainer

Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer has devoted some of his Übermalungen to the figure of Christ. The process consists in overpainting, blackening or masking illustrations and photographs. His paintings sometimes depict the cross or else he uses reproductions of crucifixions and wooden sculptures representing Christ which he then purposely abuses. Through misappropriation, holy images become formless, abject and heterological.