Otto Mühl

Born in Grodnau, Austria in 1925, he trained at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts before becoming a central figure in Viennese Actionism during the 1960s. His Material Actions, first staged in 1962 alongside Adolf Frohner and Hermann Nitsch, used the body as canvas and incorporated blood, food, and transgressive ritual in deliberate opposition to conventional painting. In 1972 he founded the Friedrichshof Commune as a post-art social experiment. He was convicted of sexual offences against minors in 1991 and served over six years in prison. He died in Portugal in 2013.