Maria Lassnig’s art reveals a basic problem every person is confronted with. It is the question of the picture, of the visual at a fundamental level, although one should note that the visible world can only partially be defined as a location of the visual. More essential in Maria Lassnig’s work seems the awareness that the human body represents a medium that generates pictures.
“Endogenous Pictures”, which arise from within a human (images generated by memory or dreams etc.), are also the subject of visual studies. When seen from this angle, remarkable insights are won from Maria Lassnig’s work. Her work thus turns into an applied critique of the image. The question of the location of the pictures or of the visual is posed here with especial urgency.
The exhibition in the Neue Galerie Graz presents works by the artist – some of them not yet shown – from all creative periods, an œuvre that traces the developments from Abstract Expressionism to representational painting in exemplary fashion. The solo show takes as its theme the processes of turning external reality into images, as well as the manifestation of inner pictures.
