Martha Jungwirth

_{Vienna 1940}

Initially known for her drawings and watercolors, Martha Jungwirth soon painted self-portraits and devoted herself to the representation of everyday objects, which culminated in the graphic virtuoso implementation of electrical household appliances (“Indesit” series). After her studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna from 1956 to 1963, Jungwirth appeared in public with works in various media, such as pencil drawings, watercolors, and works in oil and ink in which the artist combines abstraction and figuration.
Her travels act as an incentive to overcome old habits and develop into unknown realities, inducing her to recapitulate these visually in her Viennese studio subsequently. A significant influence on her art portrays a trip to New York in 1974/75, which led her to create large-scale drawings of ordinary household objects as symbols of female post-war captivity and simultaneous deconstruction of the object itself. Jungwirth’s painting process can be described as an explorative oscillation between impulsiveness in playing with color on canvas and a controlled aesthetic influence. Despite the tendency to fluctuate between these two polarities, intuition always asserts itself during her creative process.
Through her artistic career, Martha Jungwirth received several awards, among them the Oskar-Kokoschka-Preis in 2018. Some of her major solo and group exhibitions include Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, Austria, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Kunsthaus Zug, Albertina Modern, Vienna, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria, Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria, documenta 6, Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, Secession, Vienna, Austria, Österreichischer Pavillon Expo 1967, Montreal, Canada.