Martha Jungwirth

(*1940)

Austria – Contemporary Art – Expressionism – Martha Jungwirth

Vita:

Martha Jungwirth recognized her immense interest in art early on. After her studies at the University of Applied Arts, the attention of her work increases enormously. Her works are part of numerous exhibitions and a large number of awards soon followed. Among other things, she was delighted with the Theodor-Körner Prize and the Joan Miro Prize. In 1968 she is the only woman among the founding members of the group “Realities”. The idea behind this project was in an exhibition called “Realities” to rebel against the general Art Informel and to give more weight to realistic than to abstract painting. The only lady among the artists never really felt that she belonged to this group, as she positioned her style of painting between abstract painting on the one hand and figurative painting on the other. In the later years Martha Jungwirth decided to move to New York for a few months. After her return to Austria her work was shown in countless expositions. The painter is still one of the few Austrian artists who also became known on an international level.

Work:

Martha Jungwirth’s work is mostly characterized by landscapes and portraits, which the viewer can only guess at. “My art is like a diary, I am completely related to myself. Drawing and painting are a movement that runs through me. Through my perception and my gestures, what I perceive becomes something completely different. The picture then no longer has anything descriptive but is an intelligent structure of spots, ”is how the artist herself describes her painting style. The longer you look at her works of art, the clearer the figures and feelings become. The color red in all tones has a special place in her paintings. In the 1970s, a drawing project called the “Indesit Series” was created that was decisive for the artist. Indesit is an Italian dishwasher brand. The oeuvre is characterized on the one hand by Pop Art motifs and on the other hand by the functional interior of the dishwasher. She went on to describe this unique subject with the words “So far, the spot has always been the starting point. In the Indesit series, I was able to merge line and stain for the first time. I worked with different materials here: the line of the hard pencil and with the soft dust of the pastel – the stain now got a contour „.