Maria Lassnig
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA
15 October 2022 - 2 April 2023
Maria Lassnig’s use of the human body as a tool for self-analysis is present throughout her oeuvre. Influenced at an early stage by art movements that celebrate gestural, informal and spontaneous practice, Lassnig developed a bold, singular style that explores sensory experience and self-perception. For the exhibition Body Awareness: Maria Lassnig’s Experimental Films, the MFA Boston gives centre stage to Lassnig’s experimental film work, which for many years has been analysed and discussed primarily in the context of her painting and graphic work.
MFA Boston presented sixteen individual works that explore physical sensation in an autobiographical context, the films provide a deep insight into the artist’s practice. Phileas has supported two public event programmes during the exhibition. The first of these, which took place in late February 2023, contextualised Lassnig’s film work and her participation in the Women/Artists/Filmmakers Inc. collective. The second programme of events, held on 31 March, 2023 invited contemporary artists and curators to respond to the intersection of gender, identity and interpersonal relationships within Lassnig’s films.
Maria Lassnig (born 1919 in Kappel am Krappfeld, Austria, died 2014) was one of the most important and influential Austrian artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Her works have been exhibited at documenta 7 and documenta X, the Austrian Pavilion at the 1980 Venice Biennale, and in museums and art institutions across the world. In 2004, Lassnig received the Max Beckmann Prize of the City of Frankfurt, and in 2013 she was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for her lifetime achievement. For more information about the exhibition, please visit the MFA Boston homepage.
