Head

Artist Maria Lassnig (1919 Kappel am Krappfeld – 2014 Wien)

Object typePainting
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
46 × 46 cm
Signatureunlabelled
Inventory numberLg 721
Location Upper Belvedere
Credit Line1975 Artothek des Bundes, Dauerleihgabe im Belvedere, Wien
During several visits to Paris, Maria Lassnig explored Surrealism and non-figurative painting. In view of the danger of “degenerating into sterile abstraction,” as she put it, however, on her return to Vienna in 1954 she sought a middle way between figuration and abstraction. Dispensing with physiognomic details such as nose, eyes, and mouth, in this painting she deconstructs a head into planar components—“cheek plates, forehead plates, neck cylinders.” Despite what appears at first sight to be a formal abstraction, the way of focusing and reduction are clear references to Lassnig’s “body awareness painting.”

Figure