Martha Jungwirth’s South Korean Debut at Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul, Fort Hill

Among many accolades, Martha Jungwirth‘s six-decade painting career has succeeded in avoiding the stiff categorisation that has been affixed to so many others.

While appearing abstract, further inspection reveals the figurative crawling out. Thick pools and textured strokes of rich reds, pinks, and magentas are a welcome respite from the vast expanse of bare brown canvas (or handmade paper, old accounting books, or cardboard) she paints upon.

In reflecting the world around her, Jungwirth’s observations sit somewhere between the real and imagined—neither immediately identifiable nor resolutely foreign.

In her first solo exhibition in South Korea, Jungwirth exhibits Looking the Goat in the Eye (27 April–10 June 2023) at Thaddaeus Ropac’s Seoul Fort Hill location.

Bringing a selection of recent oil paintings and watercolours, the presentation continues the Austrian artist’s exploration of mythology, art history, and her own travels.

Namely, the dancing revellers in Ohne Titel, aus der Serie “Goya” (2023) and Ohne Titel, aus der Serie “Francisco de Goya, Das Begräbnis der Sardine” (2023) poached from the early 19th-century carnival scenes of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya—a recent muse of Jungwirth’s.

While a group of 2019 watercolours in the exhibition refers to the Greek island of Delos—the landscape and mythology of the Cyclades archipelago having been a continuous source of inspiration throughout her career.

On her unguided approach, Jungwirth explains: ‘My art is like a diary, seismographic. This is the method of my work. I am completely related to myself. Drawings and painting are a movement that runs through me’.

Main image: Martha Jungwirth, Ohne Titel, aus der Serie "Goya" (2023). Oil on paper on canvas. 241.2 x 308 cm. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, London/Paris/Salzburg/Seoul. © Martha Jungwirth / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Ulrich Ghezzi.