Mgr. Otto Mauer, 'Collagen' vernissage der austellung Stephan Pral, Ani 6, October 1966: Galerie St. Stephan, Vienna 1966.

Vienna: Galerie St. Stephan., 1966. First edition. Paperback. Fine. 8vo. Folding sheet private view invitation. With b/w decoration. Monsignor Otto Mauer, Austrian Patron of the ArtsHerbert KuhnerIn the Nineteen-Fifties Monsignor Otto Mauer, was instrumental in introducing modern art to post-war Austria. He founded the Galerie St. Stephan in Vienna and promoted such avant-garde artists as Wolfgang Hollegha, Josef Mikl und Markus Prachensky.However, artists came on the scene, whose work transcended theirs in sensationalism. Rather than using such materials as canvass, wood and stone, they used the human body, its fluids and secretions. These pioneers worked individually and as a group under the name of the Vienna Actionists, and Mauer concentrated his efforts on promoting them. With his backing, they set about conquering the International Art World, and indeed the trend has spread like wildfire.Luminaries of the movement are Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, Peter Weibel, Valie Export and Rudolf Schwarzkogler.The motto épater le bourgeois was replaced by emmerder le monde. Public sado-masochism and brutality were the means.Here is background material:After the war, Otto Mauer along with Bishop Alois Hudal, who was located at the Vatican, was a member of the Vatican Ratline and aided escaping Nazis, as well as those who remained in Austria. Among Mauers protégés was former Third Reich publicist Otto Schulmeister, who in turn supported Mauer. Mauer and Schulmeister collaborated as editors on the Catholic cultural monthly Wort und Wahrheit together, which they founded in the Fifties.Otto Schulmeister, 1989: There were many swine at the time, not only brown ones. Asked whether he regretted what he had written during the Third Reich in National Socialist organs, he replied: Not in the least!Otto Mauer, pater familias of the actionists, was the official Catholic caretaker of souls for artists.Otto Mauer in 1948, the years after the Holocaust: The Jews have immense influence on communism and capitalism. They pass themselves off as defenders of humanitybut they are nothing but a depraved people with a perverted spirit.They have been condemned to eternal damnation.They invariably choose the evil path.Bishop Egon Kapellari, Austrias Bishop for Art: Monsignor Otto Mauer, the unforgotten sponsor of contemporary art of his time, wrote in his renowned text, A Discourse on Art, that he was aware that society, yes even the state, had to defend itself against anti-humanistic, racial discriminatory, anti-Semitic, etc. art. A year later Mauer was more conciliatory. In 1949 he wrote: There is a solution to the Jewish problem, but just one: the Jews must recognize Christ as the Messiah, the heathens must become ChristiansOtto Mauer, during the Third Reich: The artist is in league with the devil, either as one possessed or as an exorcist.Mauer to artist Günther Kraus: A good Catholic cannot be a good artist.Mauer labeled the object-artist Padhi Friebeger as a heretic. Then he offered to promote Frieberger if he joined the Catholic Church.Josef Dvorak about Otto Mauer: He thought that Otto Mühl and Hermann Nitsch were much better suited to his gallery than mine. That is why his intrigue against me was unlimited.Otto Mauer created the actionists and he minted their spirit, which has become ubiquitous in the art world. Actionism did not develop anti-humanistic tendencies; they were apparent right off the bat. Monsignor Mauer was instrumental in making actionism socially acceptable, as well as officially acceptable in Austria. Whats more, actionism never would have caught on the way it did, had its pivotal promoter not been a man of the cloth.On April 17, 1967, Mühl along with Oswald Wiener and Peter Weibel presented an actionist performance in Mauers Gallery St. Stephan. (This was followed by the sado-masochistic extravaganza at the University of Vienna on June 7th.) Mühl had made a name for himself by engaging in public fecal orgies. In Weibel/Exports Wien book, he is depicted with Hanel Koeck. These were to serve as the basis for the failed experiment.(Ms. Koeck is an Actionism groupie and has also engaged in performances with Hermann Nitsch. )