MARIA LASSNIG

Early Years

Maria Lassnig was born in the rural Austrian town of Kappel am Krappfeld in 1919. She trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna during the Nazi regime, developing her artistic voice in opposition to the strictures of academic realism. After the war, she gravitated towards abstraction influenced by European modernism, spending formative years in Paris where she engaged with artists such as Paul Celan and André Breton.

In the 1960s, Lassnig relocated to New York, where she lived for over a decade. There, she encountered feminism and experimental animation, both of which had a lasting impact on her practice. Returning to Vienna in the late 1970s, she became the first female professor of painting in a German-speaking country when appointed to the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Artworks

Maria Lassnig’s distinctive body of work spans painting, drawing, and animation, unified by her lifelong investigation into the self as felt from within—what she called ‘Körperbewusstseinsbilder’ or ‘body awareness paintings’. Her contemporary art practice fused raw figuration with psychological and philosophical depth, foregrounding the subjective experience of embodiment in a manner both confrontational and profoundly human.

Early Experiments in Abstraction

Lassnig began her artistic career working in a mode aligned with European Art Informel and Tachisme. Her paintings from the 1940s and 50s, such as Du und ich mit Katze (You and Me with Cat, 1949), exhibit a gestural, semi-abstract approach influenced by Cézanne, Kandinsky, and Surrealist automatism. These early artworks prioritised intuition and spontaneity, often featuring biomorphic forms that hinted at bodily presence without explicit figuration. Lassnig was searching for a visual language that could convey internal sensations rather than external appearances. This abstract period laid the groundwork for her later innovations, allowing her to break from traditional portraiture and move towards a radical rethinking of self-representation in contemporary art.

Body Awareness and Self-Portraiture

From the late 1950s onwards, Lassnig began painting what she termed ‘body awareness’ self-portraits—depictions of how her body felt from within, rather than how it looked from outside. These arresting artworks often present fragmented or contorted figures, rendered in acidic greens, reds, and blues, which convey emotional and physical tension. In Woman Power (1979), a dismembered female form carries cartoonish weapons, evoking both vulnerability and resistance. Double Self-Portrait with Camera (1979) offers a satirical view of the female artist scrutinised by the male gaze and by herself. Lassnig’s works challenged conventions of beauty and visibility in painting, pioneering a genre of feminist self-representation that continues to influence contemporary artists.

Animation and Drawing

While living in New York during the 1970s, Lassnig expanded her contemporary art practice into film and animation. Studying at the School of Visual Arts, she created animated shorts such as Selfportrait (1971) and Couples (1972), which translated her painterly concerns into time-based media. These works use surreal, hand-drawn sequences to explore identity, gender dynamics, and the absurdities of modern life. Drawing remained a daily practice for Lassnig throughout her life. Her graphic works—ranging from diaristic sketches to grotesque caricatures—display a dark humour and psychological candour that matches her paintings. Together, these mediums reveal a multifaceted artist continually probing the boundaries of perception and representation.

Awards and Accolades

• Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, La Biennale di Venezia (2013)
• Honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria (2010)
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2005)
• Max-Beckmann prize, Frankfurt, Germany (2004)
• Grand Austrian State Prize (1988)

Exhibitions

Maria Lassnig has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at important institutions. A selection of important exhibitions is provided below.

Solo Exhibitions

• Maria Lassnig, UCCA Beijing, Beijing (2022)
• Staying Alert, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (2022)
• Maria Lassnig. Ways of Being, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019)
• Maria Lassnig. Zwiegesprache / Dialogues, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel (2018)
• Maria Lassnig: Woman Power, Palazzo Pitti at Uffizi Gallery, Florence (2017)
• Maria Lassnig, MoMA PS1, New York (2014)
• Maria Lassnig, Serpentine Gallery, London (2008)

Group Exhibitions

• Maria Lassnig, Edvard Munch: Flow Of Paint = Flow Of Life , Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich; Travels to: Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2026)
• Isa Mona Lisa, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2024)
• Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2023)
• A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920 – 2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022)
• Venice Biennale 2013, 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice (2013)

Website

Maria Lassnig’s website can be found here.

Critical Reception

Maria Lassnig’s legacy has been explored in depth by publications such as Apollo, Artnet News, and The Guardian.

Maria Lassnig FAQs

Ocula | 2025