
Painting by Maria Lassnig
Image: Allie_Caulfield via Flickr CC
If you’ve never before seen the works of contemporary painter Maria Lassnig in person, now is your chance. MoMA PS1, a solely contemporary, boundary-pushing affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art, will be presenting works by the groundbreaking Maria Lassnig, with a particular emphasis on her self-portraiture.
The Austrian artist, born in 1919, is considered one of the most important contemporary painters, and is regarded as a pioneer in many areas of art today. Lassnig has been deeply influenced by the countless social and cultural changes she has witnessed throughout her life; at nearly one hundred years old, the artist has worked tirelessly to examine the transformations endured by society throughout the twentieth and now into the twenty-first century. Her work transcends the ordinary and expected, presenting viewers with a visceral, colorful, and raw take on human experience and emotion.
Using the term “body awareness,” Lassnig has always refused to create realistic depictions of her experiences, instead favoring a style that evokes what she feels, rather than what she sees. According to MoMA PS1,
Throughout a remarkable career that has spanned more than 70 years, she has continued to create work that vulnerably explores the way she comes into contact with the world, often placing particular emphasis upon the disjunctions between her own-self image and the way she is seen by others – as a woman, as a painter, and as a person living through the dramatic technological and cultural developments that have marked the century of her lifetime.
Maria Lassnig at MoMA PS1 will feature many works from the artist that have never been exhibited in the United States. As MoMA PS1 details, the show will be the most significant survey of her work ever presented in the U.S., with more than 50 paintings, watercolors, and filmic works. The exhibition will showcase works from various creative periods of her career, illustrating the personal struggles, nightmares, social observations, and fantasies the artist has.
Maria Lassnig, on view March 9-May 25, 2014. Visit MoMA PS1’s upcoming exhibitions page to learn more.
Featured Image: latitudes-flickr via Flickr CC