Maria Lassnig : Vivre avec l’art empêche de se faner ! - LUMA 2025

📍 LUMA Foundation, Arles

▪️ iDzia Installation: the sound, the lighting, the video

Maria Lassnig at LUMA Arles

Presented at the LUMA Foundation, in the Galerie du Cerisier and the Galerie des Archives Vivantes, from May 2025 to April 2026, Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives / Chapter 5: Maria Lassnig "Vivre avec l’art empêche de se faner !" (Living with art keeps you from withering!) is an exhibition dedicated to the artist Maria Lassnig, tracing her artistic journey.

A Pioneer of Body Awareness

Born in Austria in 1919 and deceased in 2014, Maria Lassnig left her mark on art history through her paintings and drawings. Her concept of Körpergefühl (“body awareness”) led her to depict not the body’s outward appearance, but the sensations it experiences from within, giving rise to expressive self-portraits.

Considered one of Austria’s greatest painters, she explored surrealism, informal art, and animated film, while developing a feminist approach. Her career has garnered international recognition: she represented Austria at the Venice Biennale, exhibited at Documenta in 1982 and 1997, and received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.

An exhibition born of a friendship between an artist and a curator

Maria Lassnig: “Living with Art Keeps You from Wilting!” is part of a series of exhibitions presented by LUMA Arles, in which German curator Hans Ulrich Obrist highlights the personal archives of artists he has known throughout his career.

The exhibition brings together filmed interviews between Lassnig and Obrist, their correspondence, and several of the artist’s paintings. Two films complement the exhibition: The Ballad of Maria Lassnig (1992) and Selfportrait (1971), showcasing her pioneering work in animated film within New York’s feminist scene. As the curator summarizes:

 “For Maria Lassnig, life and art were one and the same.” (LUMA Arles, 2025)

A statement that illuminates the entire exhibition and captures the spirit of a pioneer for whom creating was, above all, a way of being.