Together with Dieter Roth, Günther Brus, Hermann Nitsch, and others, in the seventies he organized a series of poet workshops that went down in art history under the heading of Rarely Heard Music. Excerpts from what were in part actions lasting several days were released on an LP. In subsequent years, he became known primarily for his graphic works, which range from Concrete Poetry, automatic drawings, and typocollages to torn newspaper and combines pictorial aspects with musical and literary references.

Gerhard Rühm is one of the most well known and important artists in the area of German-language Concrete and Visual Poetry. The exhibition offers an overview of his comprehensive oeuvre as exemplified by his edited works from the period of the Vienna Group, which are being shown for the first time in their entire breadth. It includes not only his artist’s books, posters, postcards, multiples, and graphic prints, but also his film and radio play productions as well as records, cassettes, CDs, etc.

The exhibition by the Research Center for Artist’s Publications marks the close of a research project in cooperation with the University of Bremen encompassing the presentation of intermedia artistic productions as exemplified by Gerhard Rühm, the result of which will be the release of a multimedia edition on his pictorial, literary, and musical work. It was possible to locate and assemble his early film productions for the first time. On the occasion of the opening on March 2, at 7:00 p.m. Gerhard Rühm will perform solo texts and spoken duets.