Kunstmuseum Bonn shows extraordinary exhibition of works by Maria Lassnig

She painted not only according to visual impressions, but with all sensory perceptions: Maria Lassnig based her artworks on intense self-perception. The photographs in which Lassnig lies on the canvas and paints with her eyes closed have become well-known. The exhibition Maria Lassnig – Staying awake at the Kunstmuseum Bonn spans a wide range from the artist's early work to her last large-scale works. The nearly 40 works of art can be seen from February 10 to May 08, 2022.

Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) began to go her own way at an early age. After an insightful stay in Paris, she founded informal painting in Austria together with Arnulf Rainer, but the organized exhibition failed with critics and the public. Lassnig later recounted that she was even threatened with beatings. She then lived in Paris and New York, where she experimented with the body-conscious painting for which she is known today. Lassnig is thus considered a pioneer of feminist body art and Viennese Actionism. In 1980, she became the first woman in the German-speaking world to receive a professorship in painting. Since then Lassnig has enjoyed success with the contemporary public as an artist. She participated in the documenta in Kassel in 1982 and 1997 and received a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale in 2013.