Maria Lassnig

A conciliatory review of the life of the author using the techniques of animated film. In 1972, Selfportrait received the award of the New York State Council.

A short film by Maria Lassnig.

The Austrian artist Maria Lassnig tells us the story of her life in 14 verses, beginning with her birth and ending with her life as it is today. Simultaneusly - in the background - we see the story as animated drawings, full of irony, humor and wisdom.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in 1974.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in the early 1970s.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in 1970.

Rough cut by Maria Lassnig. Color correction and final cut completed posthumously by Mara Mattuschka and Hans Werner Poschauko in accordance with Lassnig’s notes from her notebook on film, “Yom Kippur, 1970s.” Soundtrack: Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 from the artist’s own music collection.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in the early 1970s.

Shot in New York in the mid-1970s, Maria Lassnig's Alice is an unconventional portrait of the titular woman, with footage of her body accented by superimposed fireworks, Händel, and Lassnig's laconic voice-over.

In an associative montage statues of saints in rigid and rapt poses are cross cut with those of real actors until the two can no longer be told apart. Gradually the real bodies break away from the constraints of their wooden models through increasingly improvised dance. A successful act of liberation from (Catholic) convention, which the material celebrates in an acstasy of multiple exposures and psychedelic colors.

Feministic interpretations of famous paintings by Vermeer, Michelangelo and others.

Women's bodies are presented as ambiguous erotic landscapes, sometimes classically baroque, sometimes cubistic visions in a distorted reflection, depending on the camera angle and shot size. Finally the female flesh frees itself to the accompaniment of electronic smacking noises and, ignoring all gender borderlines, unites with itself in Cronenbergesque growths.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot in 1970.

A slender chair works out while a cushioned one strains. Hand-drawn comedy with early cinema motifs. A woman arrives and sits, finding a perfect fit.

a) a fat girl singing about not wanting to get thin just to please men. b) the first time for her and him. c) at the fortune-teller. A confrontation of horrible science and horrible superstition.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot circa 1970.

The tone is lyrical, the voices are real, the bodies are sketchy: A couple talks at the phone and in bed (a casanova and his victim). "You helped me, you made me strong, but you can't blame me for anything. When somebody loves so blindly, they pay with their life."

About a group of graduates from Cambridge University who go back to their college to visit a friend who has stayed on there. Otto Muehl founded a community of artists in Vienna in 1970 with the aim of exploring a completely free life practice. Since 1972, this society experiment at the Friedrichshof in Burgenland, 60 kilometers from Vienna, further developed. From the mid-1970s, other municipalities were founded in 30 European cities. At Friedrichshof itself lived at times up to 240 members and visitors.

From 2001 until shortly before her death in 2014, Sepp Dreissinger regularly visited Austrian artist Maria Lassnig, and accompanied her with photo- and video-cameras. The film documents the oftentimes very personal approach taken by the photographer and filmmaker towards a solitary artist.

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot from 1971-74.

Maria Lassnig's take on the fairytale. A collaboration with dancer Liesbeth Eberwein (Baroque Statues).

A short film by Maria Lassnig, shot from 1971-72.