At the beginning of the discovery of the self-portrait, Arnulf Rainer presented his face painted with bold black lines to the public in 1967. Initially as an extension of the canvas, automaton photos become another major theme of his work in 1968 and 1969. Face Farces is the title he gives to these „soliloquies in front of the camera“, which are soon taken not only in photo booths but mainly by the photographer Alexander Prinzjakowitsch. The need to externalise a certain expression, a certain inner tension, leads Rainer in his performative self-expressions to pictures that on the one hand stand for themselves, but on the other hand become the starting point for new works through the confrontation with their contents. Especially at the climax of his overpaintings, he succeeds in reinventing his painting in self-portraits and body poses. His reaction to painting now becomes perceptible in a different way in these representations based on photographic models, yet despite all the overpainting, scratching, finger painting and filling in, a more or less interpretable „model“ remains. Painting is now measured against the photographic image and the expression of the original picture. (Dr. Antonia Hoerschelmann, Albertina Vienna)