Rudolf Schwarzkogler

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Schwarzkogler, Rudolf (1940–1969). Austrian Body or Performance artist. Like the Vienna Actionists, with whom he occasionally worked, Schwarzkogler was often concerned with violence and pain (he sometimes used medical instruments, recalling his father, a doctor who committed suicide in 1943 after losing both legs in the Second World War). He achieved a place in the pantheon of great artistic oddballs by reputedly cutting off his own penis as part of a performance; however, the story depended on a misreading of the photographic documentation of the work (the object that is shown in close-up being cut with a razor blade is in fact a dead fish). The photographs first became widely known when they were exhibited at Documenta V in 1972, and one of the critics who launched the legend (with an article in Artforum) had the appropriately cutting name of Lizzie Borden. Among the other critics who discussed the issue was Robert Hughes, who described Schwarzkogler as ‘the Vincent van Gogh of Body Art', who ‘proceeded, inch by inch, to amputate his own penis, while a photographer recorded the act as an art event'. The true version of events is documented in the catalogue of an exhibition of Schwarzkogler's work shown at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and elsewhere in 1992–4. Schwarzkogler, though, did undoubtedly abuse his body, and he committed suicide by falling from a window.

Schwarzkogler, Rudolf (b Vienna, 13 Nov. 1940; d Vienna, 20 June 1969). Austrian Performance artist. Like the Vienna Actionists, with whom he occasionally worked, Schwarzkogler was often concerned with violence and pain (he sometimes used medical instruments, recalling his father, a doctor who committed suicide in 1943 after losing both legs in the Second World War). He achieved a place in the pantheon of great artistic oddballs by reputedly cutting off his own penis as part of a performance; Robert Hughes referred to him as ‘the Vincent van Gogh of Body art’, who ‘proceeded, inch by inch, to amputate his own penis, while a photographer recorded the act as an art event’. However, the story depends on a misreading of the photographic documentation of the work (the object that is shown being cut with a razor blade is in fact a dead fish). Schwarzkogler, though, did undoubtedly abuse his body, and he committed suicide by falling from a window.