In the 1950s, the Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer began covering his canvases with thick layers of dark paint, sometimes greatly obscuring the original image. The technique, known as “overpainting,” became his trademark. Rainer later applied it to photographs of himself pulling faces and contorting his body, drawing and painting over the prints in a series called “Face Farces.” Rainer, who was born near Vienna in 1929, died in late 2025. The Albertina, which holds some 600 of his works, now mounts the first major exhibition since his death. Around 70 pieces show Rainer’s development from the early overpaintings and “Face Farces” to the crosses and veiled pictures of his later years. —Elena Clavarino