/internal/media/dispatcher/146176/fullHeadca 1954[Maria Lassnig]Maria LassnigOil on canvasDuring 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.” Painting© Maria Lassnig Stiftung / Bildrecht, Wien 2026https://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/9211/rdf