Achille Bonito Oliva 
The language of art 
The artist feels the abnormality of reality and feels 
he is on a lower level. To respond to this profound 
difference he adopts a particular strategy, that of 
expressive emphasis which is able to extend to a 
maximum the presence of the subject: interior noise 
against the supine silence of society and the indif- 
ference of a universe that seems to accept at one 
and the same time both the innocence of nature 
and the brutality of history. 
In the drawings of Günter Brus a kind of narcissis- 
tic irradiation presides over creation, a regression 
to the elementary stage of childhood, even to that 
of humanity represented by the primitive cultures, 
which allows the use and pleasure of a manual 
activity that reduces all complexities to an essen 
tial stage. All this is not the result of an artificial 
attitude, but the consequence of a sentimental 
condition that allows no alternatives save that of 
artistic expression, able to produce repair. 
In this way the artist redirects the world's attention 
to itself, which otherwise would not come about. 
The natumlness of the subject is restored by recov- 
ering a language, that of art, which is able to rep- 
resent man's asymmetrical position beyond all prob- 
ability. A strong metalinguistic awareness presides 
over Brus's art, conscious of the specific nature of 
Creative experience, which adopts techniques that 
are certainly not those of life. Also emphasis there- 
fore becomes the disguise necessary to enlarge the 
instances and needs of totality which reality tends 
to deny. 
in fact the concept of space, both pictorial and 
graphic, is always firmly two-dimensional, exclud- 
ing all temptation of naturalistic representation. 
The emphatic alteration of the sign respects the 
conformation of a space that does not seek the il- 
lusion of duplicating things. Space is introspective 
and as such it needs no other depth than the two 
dimensions of the canvas or paper. The asymme- 
tries of emotion and nostalgia find the natural signs 
of their representation in the language of art. 
Here representation does not mean mystification 
or alteration, but rather examining things under a 
magnifying glass that succeeds in highlighting 
aspects of depth that no other means of reproduc- 
tion is able to achieve. Against the means of repro- 
duction of a society resulting from positivistic 
culture, Brus's art opposes the traditional means of 
art, which confirms its central position that this mo- 
ment in history tends to deny. Paradoxically, be- 
hind the regressive use of expressive emphasis lurks 
a great cultural awareness that leads to an inter- 
weaving with the human Sciences, psychoanalysis 
and cultural anthropology, albeit often realised 
instinctively, by tuning in. 
Art becomes the foundation of a liberating model 
that heals wounds and enhances the proliferating 
motifs of the depth of the psyche, structured ac- 
cording to the same organic principles as nature; 
at the same time it also atones for the violence and 
abuses of history which has emarginated the primi 
tive cultures, accused of being different. Ethnology 
and anthropology in fact also develop under the