Maria Lassnig: Film Works

Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) is internationally recognized as one of the most important painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. The leitmotif of her painting, the act of rendering her ＂body awareness＂ visible found additional expression in film in the early 1970s. During her time in New York, Lassnig studied animation at the School of Visual Arts and began to film in 8mm and 16mm. While several of these New York films have long since been part of her canonical works (e.g. Selfportrait, Iris, Couples, Shapes), many remained unfinished. These ＂films in progress＂ can be regarded as autobiographical notes as well as an artistic experiment featuring many of Lassnig’s recognizable sujets and methods. In 2018, this filmic legacy was restored and in many cases completed according to Lassnig’s original concept and instructions by two close collaborators, artists Hans Werner Poschauko and Mara Mattuschka, and presented to great international acclaim.

This English-language publication provides the first comprehensive index of Lassnig’s film works, offering insight into the filmmaker’s world of ideas through a wide selection of Lassnig’s own previously unpublished notes. It also includes a selection of Lassnig’s ＂films in progress＂ on DVD. Two essays by James Boaden and Stefanie Proksch-Weilguni place Lassnig’s work in the context of the US-American film avant-garde of the 1970s, while conversations with Mara Mattuschka, Hans Werner Poschauko and the restoration team shed a light on the rediscovery of Lassnig’s fascinating films.

Eszter Kondor is the author of Aufbrechen, a German-language chronicle of the early history of the Austrian Film Museum, where she currently coordinates the publishing activities.

Michael Loebenstein is the director of the Austrian Film Museum, where the original materials of Lassnig’s ＂films in progress＂ were digitized and the restoration carried out in close collaboration with the Maria Lassnig Foundation.

Peter Pakesch is an Austrian exhibition curator, museum director, and founding director of the Maria Lassnig Foundation.

Hans Werner Poschauko is an Austrian artist and curator, a student in the class of Maria Lassnig and her assistant until her death in 2014, and a board member at the Maria Lassnig Foundation.