Maria Lassnig was born in 1919 in Carinthia, Austria and passed away in 2014 in Vienna. Underappreciated for most of her life, she is now rightfully recognized as one of the most important Post-War painters.

From a young age, Lassnig began to explore the human figure through drawing. She studied painting at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy but found the art scene at that time to be too limiting. She moved to Paris in 1960 and then to New York in 1968, continually exploring how to represent the body as it feels to inhabit rather than how it appears from the outside – a concept which Lassnig named Körperbewusstseinsmalerei (body awareness painting). On returning to her native Austria in 1980, she became the country’s first female professor of painting.

Her life’s work won her many accolades including the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2013 at the 55th Venice Biennale. Lassnig represented Austria in the 1980 Venice Biennale alongside Valie Export, and also participated in the 2000 and 2003 Venice Biennales. Her work was included in the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2008); Documenta, Kassel, Germany (1982 & 1997); and the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2010).

She has been the subject of one person exhibitions at the Albertina Museum, Vienna; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover; Kunsthaus Zurich; Kunstmuseum Basel; MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Serpentine Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; UCCA, Beijing; Uffizi Gallery, Florence; and Vienna Secession, among others.

Her work is included in the collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Albertina Museum, Vienna; Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Berlin; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstmuseum Basel; Kunstmuseum Bern; Lenbachhaus, Munich; Morgan Library & Museum, New York; mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others.