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Maria Lassnig Installation view

Maria Lassnig
Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2002

Maria Lassnig Installation view

Maria Lassnig
Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2002

Maria Lassnig Installation view

Maria Lassnig
Installation view
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
2002

Abwehr

Abwehr
2000
Oil on canvas
81.1 x 60.24 inches

Fussballerin

Fussballerin
1998
Oil on canvas
78.74 x 59.06 inches

Im Netz

Im Netz
2001
Oil on canvas
80.71 x 80.71 inches

Competition III 2000

Competition III
2000
Oil on canvas
81.5 x 60.24 inches

Kampfgeist I

Kampfgeist I
2000
Oil on canvas
81.5 x 59.06 inches

Competition I 1999

Competition I
1999
Oil on canvas
81.1 x 60.24 inches

Der Delikate Boxer

Der Delikate Boxer
2000
Oil on canvas
78.74 x 59.06 inches

Die müde Turnerin

Die müde Turnerin
2000
Oil on canvas
78.74 x 59.06 inches

Untitled 1999 Pencil and watercolor on paper

Untitled
1999
Pencil and watercolor on paper
25.5 x 19.625 inches

Augenweide

Augenweide
1999
Pencil and watercolor on paper
17.25 x 23.75 inches

3 x self portraits

3 x self portraits
2001
Pencil and watercolor on paper
17.25 x 23.375 inches

Insektenmensch

Insektenmensch
1997
Pencil and watercolor on paper
23.5 x 17.25 inches

Untitled 1999 Pencil and watercolor on paper

Untitled
1999
Pencil and watercolor on paper
16.75 x 24.25 inches

Gehirnlappen

Gehirnlappen
1996
Pencil and watercolor on paper
27.5 x 19.5 inches

Manpower 1983 Pencil and watercolor on paper

Manpower
1983
Pencil and watercolor on paper
24 x 16.75 inches

Mensch und Tier

Mensch und Tier
1997
Pencil and watercolor on paper
20 x 27.5 inches

Scharfer Empfang - Biting Reception

Scharfer Empfang - Biting Reception
1995
Pencil and watercolor on paper
17.25 x 23.5 inches

Kopf mit Augen

Kopf mit Augen
1999
Pencil and watercolor on paper
19.5625 x 27.5 inches

Frühlingsgerüche 1998 Pencil and watercolor on paper

Frühlingsgerüche
1998
Pencil and watercolor on paper
17.125 x 23.75 inches

Woman in the Bed

Woman in the Bed
2002
Pencil and watercolor on paper
19.75 x 25.25 inches

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Curated by Andrea Teschke
Opening reception: Thursday, October 24, 6-8 pm

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Vienna-based artist Maria Lassnig. The opening is scheduled for Thursday, October 24 from 6 pm until 8 pm and the exhibition will continue through November 30.

Maria Lassnig was born in Carinthia, Austria. She studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste in Vienna. After several stays in Paris in the 1950s and a 12-year residence in New York, she returned to Vienna in 1980 and represented Austria that same year at the Biennale di Venezia. Even though she never considered herself part of a feminist circle, one entire generation of women artists is indebted to her, allowing for radically subjective if diverse vocabularies through the representation of the body.

For more than half a century, Maria Lassnig has pursued a meditative observation of herself through painting. She considers the body as a source of knowledge with painting serving as an instrument of self-realization. For the exhibition at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Lassnig selected a group of 11 paintings, most of them featuring the artist as a soccer player. Even though she is always her own model, these pictures are not self-portraits in the traditional sense. The "players" are painted rude and funny, sometimes grotesque but also treated with great tenderness. Titles such as "Competition 1", "In the Net", and "Defense" reveal her disdain for sentimentality and psychological cliches. Instead, she borrows from the language of sports to challenge her expressive abilities and de-notate internal visions of herself. The contours sketch out the figures on blank background with a nervous but confident energy.

Maria Lassnig is recognized as one of the preeminent artists living in Europe today and has exhibited her work since the early 1950s. She participated in documenta 7 and 10 and was included in countless group exhibitions, most recently "Painting On the Move" in Basel. Numerous retrospectives have been devoted to her paintings and drawings, among others the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Duesseldorf, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ludwig Foundation, in Vienna. This show at Friedrich Petzel Gallery is her first gallery exhibition in New York since 1989.

Catalogues are available at Friedrich Petzel Gallery. For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.