On the night of 2 April 1959, a French painter appeared on stage of the Fleischmarkt Theater in Vienna, a theater of repute, known for introducing Austrians to the avant-garde productions of Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, and Samuel Beckett, among others. The painter’s name was Georges Mathieu and for the next 40 minutes, the artist was totally engrossed in the creation of his large-scale canvas Hommage au Connétable de Bourbon, accompanied by the electroacoustic beats of Pierre Henry, the so-called ‘grandfather of techno.’ In 1957, Mathieu completed 21 paintings in three days before an audience in Tokyo. In Vienna, two years later, Mathieu’s performance is seen has having pioneered the way for the Viennese Actionists and the likes of Yves Klein, who would follow in his footsteps shortly thereafter.
