Universalmuseum Joanneum Press office Universalmuseum Joanneum [email protected] Mariahilferstraße 4, 8020 Graz, Austria Telephone +43-316/8017-9211 www.museum-joanneum.at Maria Lassnig Biography 8th September 1919 Born in Garzern in Kappel am Krappfeld, Carinthia (AT), daughter of Mathilde Gregorz. Lassnig’s father does not meet Maria until she is an adult. Maria was raised by her grandmother on account of her mother’s occupation. 1925 Mother marries baker Jacob Lassnig and the family relocates to Klagenfurt. Until 1939 Attends the Ursuline Convent School in Klagenfurt, secondary school until graduation. Drawing lessons from ages 6–10. Member of the Wandervögel, a back-tonature youth group. 1939–41 Training as a primary school teacher, teaches at elementary schools in Metnitz valley. Lassnig draws portraits of the children. 1941–43 Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (diploma) Prof. Wilhelm Dachauer gives a negative evaluation of Lassnig’s paintings, referring to them as ‘degenerate’. Lassnig switches to Prof. Ferdinand Andri’s class, studies life drawing under Prof. Herbert Boeckl. Develops her notion of subjective colour 1943 Visits Franz Wiegele (Nötsch Circle) 1945 Returns to Klagenfurt Lassnig studio becomes a meeting place for artists and writers (including, among others, Arnold Clementschitsch, Michael Guttenbrunner, Max Holzer, Wolf in der Maur, and Arnold Wande.) Influenced by Carinthian Colourism (Herbert Boeckl, Arnold Clementschitsch, Anton Kolig, Franz Wiegele) Portraits, nudes, interiors, still lifes, animal pictures Page 2 Starting 1948 Investigates Post-Cubism, Orphism, Surrealism, Automatism 1948 First ‘body awareness drawings’: introspective experiences First solo exhibition at Galerie Kleinmayr, Klagenfurt Becomes acquainted with Arnulf Rainer 1951 Relocates to Vienna Member of the Hundsgruppe (Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs, Wolfgang Hollegha, Anton Lehmden, Josef Mikl, Markus Prachensky, Arnulf Rainer). Awarded fellowship for a trip to Paris (with Arnulf Rainer) Becomes acquainted with Paul and Gisèle Celan, André Breton and Benjamin Péret. The international exhibition Véhemences Confrontées at Galerie Nina Dausset, curated by Michel Tapié, makes a lasting impression with Informal Art and Abstract Expressionist works. Organises the exhibition Junge unfigurative Malerei (Young Unfigurative Painting) at Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt (with Arnulf Rainer) 1951–53 Informal and Tachist influence gives way to Der aktive Ekel (Active Disgust), Statische Meditationen (Static Meditations), Amorphe Rhythmen (Amorphous Rhythms), (‘dumpling-‘) self- portraits, paintings with a systematized division of planes, monotypes 1952 Second trip to Paris 1954 Returns to the Academy, studies painting in Albert Paris Gütersloh’s master class Figurative works, portraits, landscapes Contact with Wiener Gruppe (Vienna Group) writers: Friedrich Achleitner, H. C. Artmann, Gerhard Rühm, Oswald Wiener 1954–56 Kopfheiten (Headnesses), bodies as colour fields 1956 Contact with the circle of artists around Monsignore Otto Mauer and the Galerie nächst St. Stephan (Wolfgang Hollegha, Josef Mikl, Markus Prachensky, Arnulf Rainer) 1958 First body sensation watercolours Page 3 1959/60 Return to the Informal: Tachist body sensation paintings 1961–68 Lives in Paris 1960–62 Large-format body sensation figurations (line drawings) 1963–65 Narrative, multi-figure line drawings: Critical representations of society; caricatured, absurd scenarios, monster-like body sensation pictures Lamentation paintings (after mother’s death in 1964) 1966–68 Constructive spatial images, near-geometric shapes, anthropomorphic mechanical scenarios 1968–80 Based in New York, several changes of residence there, spends summer holidays in Carinthia Turn to Realism: (Self-) portraits, still lifes with distorted self-portraits, partly commissioned works Silkscreen prints Compares physical sensation to the outer world The sensation of the body becomes ‘body awareness’. 1970 Attends an animation course at the School of Visual Arts, New York Body awareness drawings become the basis for (animated) films. 1972 New York State Council Award for the animated film Selfportrait 1974–76 (Self-) portraits with animals 1977 The first retrospective of graphic work, Albertina, Vienna 1978 DAAD scholarship, spends a year in Berlin Landscape drawings and watercolours, portraits Contact with Oswald Wiener Page 4 1979 Returns to New York 1980 Appointed professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (at the behest of Minister Hertha Firnberg), first female painting professor in the Germanspeaking world Represents Austria at the Venice Biennale (together with VALIE EXPORT) 1981 A teaching studio for experimental animation is installed in Lassnig’s Experimental Design master class (1980-89). 1982 Participates in documenta 7, Kassel Early 1980s Largely does away with realistic representations and portraits Self-portraits characterized by various burdens and controlling outside forces Paintings dealing with the pain of the outside world Watercolours of travels, landscapes Mythology and the archaic 1984–87 Innerhalb und außerhalb der Leinwand (Inside and Outside the Canvas) series 1985 The first painting retrospective at the Museum moderner Kunst, Vienna, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Nürnberg and the Kärntner Landesgalerie, Klagenfurt From the mid-1980s Narrative, serene images marked by a growing preoccupation with nature and animals 1992 Film Kantate (Cantata) 1995 Participates in the Venice Biennale 1997 Ceases to teach at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna Participates in documenta X, Kassel Around 2000 Landleute (Countrymen) cycle Page 5 Melancholy paintings (Illusionen/Illusions), Football pictures Paintings about the relations between the sexes, on the connection between the human and the animal 2003 Represented Austria at the first biennal in Beijing 2005/06 Night or ‘basement pictures’ Safety Curtain for the Vienna State Opera Maria Lassnig lives and works in Vienna (AT) and Feistritz ob Grades, Carinthia (AT). Awards 1977 Fine Arts Award from the City of Vienna 1985 Award from the Province of Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1988 Grand Austrian State Prize, first female artist to receive the award 1998 Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna 2001 Art prize from Norddeutsche Landesbank, Hanover 2002 Roswitha Haftmann Prize, Zürich Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen, awarded to a female artist for the first time Ring of Honour at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna 2004 Max Beckmann Prize from the City of Frankfurt am Main 2005 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art .