Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth, now 84, has recently gained wide recognition after years of being underappreciated in the art world. Born in 1940 and based in Vienna, her work—primarily oil and watercolour on paper and canvas—explores the expressive potential of these mediums, focusing on energy and movement rather than realistic representation. As Jungwirth has explained, “When external movement, bodily movement, and inner movement align, and this convergence succeeds, that’s when painting begins.”Jungwirth's international breakthrough came in 2010 when her work was included in a group exhibition curated by German painter Albert Oehlen at the Essl Museum in Austria. In 2018, Jungwirth was honored with the prestigious Oskar Kokoschka Prize by the Austrian state, and that same year, she had a solo exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Her recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Palazzo Cini Gallery in Venice in 2024.
She studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna from 1956 to 1963, and from the start always explored working in various media. In 1968, she became the only woman among the founding members of the “Wirklichkeiten” (Realities) artist group. Despite this, Jungwirth has always followed her own unique artistic path, navigating between gesturally abstract and formal compositions. Unlike the rational, methodical approaches of Minimalism and Conceptualism that defined the 1960s and 1970s, Jungwirth’s paintings emanate a raw, intimate and organic connection to the self.
While Jungwirth approaches the canvas with an idea in mind, she does not begin with any pre-sketches or plans. Instead, Jungwirth notes that the image unfolds gradually during the act of painting itself. She works on compositions from all sides, with her sheets of paper or canvas typically positioned on the floor. Her works often serve as personal records, capturing her thoughts at a given moment—whether influenced by recent travels, pressing concerns, or historical paintings she has researched. Reacting to sudden impulses, she makes bold, colorful marks on canvas or paper. These marks—layered, overlapping, and at times blurred—infuse the picture plane with a dynamic sense of movement and energy.
Her creative practice is one of constant experimentation of unusual materials and unorthodox methods. Her preference for worn and weathered materials is especially evident in the paper and cardboard she often chooses as “canvas”. These surfaces bear the marks of time—frayed edges or sheets torn unevenly from rolls of kraft paper. Then oftentimes, Jungwirth will attach these sheets of paper onto canvas, deliberately leaving portions of the canvas exposed, drawing attention to the raw quality of her materials. She frequently works with oil paint, but what makes her practice unique is her preference of using oil paint on paper—an unconventional approach. The oil often seeps into the paper, so that once she completes her brushstrokes, the paint begins to form its own marks organically as the oils absorb into the surface, highlighting the chemical properties of the medium. Another recurring aspect of her work is the tendency to leave large portions of the canvas blank. As she explains, “I can’t do it. A dense, completely filled canvas is not for me.”
Jungwirth’s extensive travels, from Istria and the Cyclades to Bali, often serve as direct inspiration for her works, with the places she visits frequently reflected in the titles of her pieces. One notable example is her Indesit series, which draws on a transformative trip to New York City in 1975, when she was 35. The city's vast, imposing architecture, coupled with her experience at MoMA where she encountered Mies van der Rohe’s large-scale charcoal drawings, deeply influenced her artistic direction. Her works from that year reflect her new fascination with the structural qualities of commonplace appliances like dishwashers and washing machines. She began to view these objects as urban symbols—contemporary, functional equivalents to the towering forms of city buildings, which she found overwhelming in New York City. While her style has evolved considerably since those early works, some elements have remained constant, such as the prevalence of empty space, the focus on markmaking, and the direct influence of her travels on her works.
During the 1980s, Jungwirth increasingly embraced the creation of large-scale watercolors and oil paintings, using bold techniques to apply the paint. One of her most notable series captures Vienna’s Spittelauer Lände, situated along the right bank of the Danube Canal in the Spittelau district. In these expansive works, she conveys the essence of the city's atmosphere, from its fluctuating weather and urban noise to the constantly shifting light.
In her series Vladimir Nabokov: Speak, Memory, Martha Jungwirth draws on photographs she took in the backyard of a house during a visit to Saint Petersburg in the summer of 2017. The series also reflects her engagement with historical figures and references. Here the title directly alludes to the Russian-American novelist and poet Vladimir Nabokov.
Bukephalos is a representation of the legendary war horse of Alexander the Great. With its delicate silhouette—both timeless and primordial—it stands as a symbolic witness to the wars, tragedies, and natural disasters that have shaped countless civilizations. This work not only reflects her engagement with historical references but also introduces another key theme in her art: the depiction of animals.
Martha Jungwirth’s Australidelphia series delves into the world of Australian marsupials, some of which are referred to as "living fossils" for retaining characteristics from ancient times. The series goes beyond a mere homage to these enduring species, but also serves as a poignant response to the catastrophic bushfires that ravaged Australia in 2019–20, claiming countless animal lives. "There’s something apocalyptic about that," Jungwirth remarked. "First the animals burn, then the people."
Her monumental work La Grande Armée is inspired by the animal-shaped funeral beds discovered in the antechamber of pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb. Thought to represent a lion, a spotted cow and a third composite creature, here, all three animals are lined up, facing the same direction, as guards and onlookers onto the passage to the afterlife. The strikingly rounded curl of the lion’s tail also recalls the elegant lines of typical ancient Egyptian depictions of animals.
Jungwirth draws inspiration from a wide array of art historical painters, infusing her work with references to both classical and modern traditions. Her recent oil paintings, for example, are influenced by the works of Francisco de Goya and Édouard Manet. However, she reinterprets these sources through her distinct artistic language, resulting in bold and transformative reimaginings of the original works. This enables her to both pay homage to and challenge the legacy of iconic figures, producing works that are deeply rooted in art history yet distinctly contemporary. Jungwirth’s series, inspired by Manet’s A Bunch of Asparagus (1880), delves into the physicality of paint, creating a delicate balance between the painted surface and the untouched areas of the paper. Jungwirth reimagines Manet's asparagus motif, maintaining the rich texture of the brushwork through her own strokes and preserving the outline, while nearly concealing its true form. Jungwirth’s work constantly hovers between abstraction and figuration.
Martha Jungwirth’s art merges history, personal or broader, with intuitive expression, crafting works that go beyond realistic representation. Her distinctive use of materials and spontaneous brushwork reveal a profound connection to both the world around her and her inner self. Vibrant hues of pinks, reds, and purples pulse across the canvas, infusing the work with energy and life. As she explains, "Through my way of painting, I transform reality, but the starting point is always what I see in front of me. It’s not abstract. You can see figures, if you want to. But what’s important to me are the emotions.” Her work is a luminous, fearless celebration—each piece a bold, beautiful declaration, rich with depth and intuition. At 84, she continues to paint prolifically, pushing boundaries and, at last, receiving the acclaim she has long deserved.
