The exhibition is presented in close collaboration with Peter Pakesch, Director of the Maria Lassnig Foundation, who explains: ‘From the outset of her career, Maria Lassnig explored physical sensations and the possibilities of perception of her own body as paradigms for artistic expression. She saw everything through this relationship between the body as the primary medium: the medium of perception, as well as the medium of action. It is a body that suffers, acts, represents, presents, forms and distorts itself, and perceives… The body dissolves, metamorphosing into mythology or machines, and reassembles itself in constantly new ways.’

The presentation coincides with the new publication ‘Maria Lassnig. Letters to Hans Ulrich Obrist. Living with art stops one wilting!’ by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. Obrist states in the preface of the book: ‘[Lassnig] sees transcendence as beginning with the body. It is based on the relationship between the body and the image, and is translated into what she calls ‘body awareness’ paintings and drawings….physical manifestations of a steady resistance to the repetitive and the static.’ Hauser & Wirth has collaborated with Obrist on a series of new online interviews and readings of the artist’s letters on hauserwirth.com to celebrate its release. Participating voices include readings from artists Camille Henrot, Paul McCarthy, Julie Mehretu, and an interview between Obrist and curator Kimberly Drew.

One of the earliest paintings on view takes the body and the machine as its subject matter. ‘Motorrad im Wald / Motorradfahrer (Motorcycle in the Forest / Motorcyclist)’ (1987), depicts Lassnig, almost 70 years old at the time of painting, travelling at speed through an Austrian mountain-top on her motorbike – an active and dynamic figure merging with the machine. This unification of the body and the motorbike fascinated Lassnig: ‘Motorcycling fosters my self-confidence because I have to overcome a threshold of fear, also because it’s new and makes you feel as if you’re swooshing ahead under your own power – and yet still close to the meadows and trees.’ The painting adeptly addresses and interprets the physicality of this experience.

In ‘Januskopf / Tag- und Nachtgedanken (Janus Head / Daytime and Nighttime Thoughts)’ (1987), themes of the body within classical mythology come to the forefront. Lassnig paints herself as Janus, the two-faced, Roman god of new beginnings and endings in lurid hues of purples and pinks. This use of light and dark colour in combination with the abstracted body effectively conveys a psychological portrait, pointing to the alteration of happiness and depression throughout the artist’s life.

Despite being known for her large format oil on canvas works, the medium of watercolour was a continuum in Lassnig’s career. Pencils, chalk, and watercolours were the artist’s constant companions that allowed her to directly grapple with psychological turmoil and the infinite possibilities of the body, whether in singular or multiple iterations. Lassnig presents herself as an abstracted figure surrounded by a buzzing insect in ‘Ich von einer Fliege umkreist (Me, Encircled by a Fly)’ (ca.1990-1999). Here the human form takes on the weight of Lassnig’s subconscious in an ironic and humourful twist. The immediacy of watercolour, pencil and paper made it possible for Lassnig to project her unconscious in a more direct manner. ‘I have absolutely no obligation to express myself in words if I can do it better with a pencil’, she once remarked. The works in this presentation are testament to this sentiment.