Double Self-portrait with Camera

Self-examination in paintings is at the center of Maria Lassnig’s artistic exploration. In her body awareness painting she developed a visual language that revolves intensely around the relationship between how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others. This iconic double self-portrait shows the artist depicted on the background canvas in a frontal standing pose, a confident filmmaker holding a camera. At the same time she appears in the foreground—pensive, introspective, seated. In her work she addresses with searing concentration representation, mediality, but also the emancipated gaze. Lassnig’s oeuvre of paintings and films, which was late in receiving due recognition, places her among the greatest Austrian artists from the second half of the 20th century.

Credit: 1979 Artothek des Bundes, Dauerleihgabe im Belvedere, Wien

Not on display