Followers of Steven Wolf’s eclectic, challenging program will be delighted that he has broken free from 49 Geary and is inhabiting new premises on 19th Street. Situated directly across from Guerrero Gallery, the storefront masonry building dates from the early twentieth century, was originally a bakery, and prior to Wolf’s tenancy served as the workshop for a metal worker. Today, with its airy sky-lit galleries, crisp white walls, concrete floors, and 18-foot ceilings of heavy wood-beams, the space has been transformed and looks like it was created with the display of contemporary art in mind.

For his inaugural exhibition, Castration Myth, Wolf has chosen to show fifteen black and white prints drawn from a published portfolio (of sixty) that represents the sum total of Rudolf Schwarzkogler’s oeuvre—six actions dating from 1965–66. The short-lived artist (1940–1969) was associated with the Viennese Actionists, and became the subject of many myths, not least that he died by slicing his penis off during a performance. Wolf extends the analogy of the “castration myth” to the psychological damage wrought on the American nation by 9/11 in acknowledgement of launching his gallery on this less than auspicious day. In conversation he also referred to the emasculating fear of trying to succeed as a gallerist in today’s economic climate.

A further misunderstanding about Schwarzkogler is that he features in the documentation of his performances. The protagonist of almost all the prints is in fact the photographer Hans Cibulka who is presented in a series of unlikely, clinical contexts, bandaged mummy-style, stuck with tubes, threatened by an unpleasantly weighty syringe, and so on. In the two images representing Action I, however, we do catch a rare glimpse of the artist taping a bleeding bride to what appears to be a crucifix, and standing on a sideboard in his studio.

Hochzeit (Aktion 1), 1965; gelatin silver print; 19.5 x 15.5 in. Courtesy of Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Subsequent images are less documentary and more abstract or symbolic. We see a naked man from the waist down, penis bandaged and legs straddling a gauze-wrapped (plaster?) sphere; a literal “cod-piece” formed by a severed fish, its lips pierced by a razor; a man’s head heavily creamed to resemble a wax model, mouth stuffed with soiled bandages.

In them all, the enduring themes of Schwarzkogler's work are revealed as the experience of pain and mutilation, the fear of sexual dismemberment, and the lure of the grotesquely brutal. Despite, or perhaps because of this, the images are mesmerizing.

Castration Myth is on view at Steven Wolf Fine Arts in San Francisco through October 9, 2010.