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Cake & Prostheses
An inveterate experimenter with image and text and music whose work bears the clear influences of Dada, Surrealism, Expressionism, and absurdism, Gerhard Rühm is truly one of the major figures of the postwar European avant-garde. Yet reprehensibly little of his work has appeared in English. This edition brings together a selection of his early work spanning the past seven decades, displaying a wide thematic range (“there is nothing that cannot become part of one’s poetic universe”) and ingenious combinations of motifs such as music, pornography, banality, humor, and mythology. The first section comprises “mini drama” prose, incorporating images and musical scores, sensorial episodes created by a singularly sensual aesthetic perception. The second section is a wry deconstruction of Grillparzer’s play Hero and Leander that juxtaposes original passages with images from a swimming manual and with a more contemporary erotic take on the mythological story. The final section presents 24 short prose pieces: 12 from the early 1950s and 12 from the past few years.
196 pages, Paperback
Published February 12, 2024
20 people want to read
About the author
Gerhard Rühm
45 books5 followersGerhard Rühm (Vienna, 12 February 1930) is a writer, composer and visual artist who was part of the Wiener Gruppe. His radically innovative work is largely intermedial. It moves in the borderland of literature, visual art and music.
Rühm studied the piano and music composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Following his studies he undertook private lessons with the twelve-tone composer Josef Matthias Hauer. Since the beginning of the 1950s Rühm has produced sound poetry, spoken word, visual poetry, photomontages and books. He is a co-founder of the Wiener Gruppe (Vienna Group), with Friedrich Achleitner, Hans Carl Artmann, Konrad Bayer und Oswald Wiener, as well as the publisher of an anthology by the same name. From 1972–1996 Rühm taught as a professor at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg and from 1978–1982 he acted as president of the Grazer Autorenversammlung.
His artistic production is inspired by August Stramm, Kurt Schwitters, Gertrude Stein, Carl Einstein und Paul Scheerbart. Rühm's works are often located at the border between music, language, gestures and the visual. His audible works are outstanding examples of innovative radio plays and acoustic art. During a sojourn in Lebanon he became interested in eastern musical styles.
In addition to producing his own work, which has been recognized by numerous awards and prizes. Rühm is also the administrator of the estate of Franz Richard Behrens and is the publisher of the works of Konrad Bayer. Since 1978 he has been a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg. In 2009 he was awarded the Alice Salomon Prize for Poetics and on January 25, 2010 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cologne.
His son is the photographer and director David Rühm
Rühm studied the piano and music composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Following his studies he undertook private lessons with the twelve-tone composer Josef Matthias Hauer. Since the beginning of the 1950s Rühm has produced sound poetry, spoken word, visual poetry, photomontages and books. He is a co-founder of the Wiener Gruppe (Vienna Group), with Friedrich Achleitner, Hans Carl Artmann, Konrad Bayer und Oswald Wiener, as well as the publisher of an anthology by the same name. From 1972–1996 Rühm taught as a professor at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg and from 1978–1982 he acted as president of the Grazer Autorenversammlung.
His artistic production is inspired by August Stramm, Kurt Schwitters, Gertrude Stein, Carl Einstein und Paul Scheerbart. Rühm's works are often located at the border between music, language, gestures and the visual. His audible works are outstanding examples of innovative radio plays and acoustic art. During a sojourn in Lebanon he became interested in eastern musical styles.
In addition to producing his own work, which has been recognized by numerous awards and prizes. Rühm is also the administrator of the estate of Franz Richard Behrens and is the publisher of the works of Konrad Bayer. Since 1978 he has been a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg. In 2009 he was awarded the Alice Salomon Prize for Poetics and on January 25, 2010 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cologne.
His son is the photographer and director David Rühm
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