“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. What’s important to me are the emotions and what happens during the painting itself”
Martha Jungwirth's work exists in a conversational realm between memory and representation, translating personal experiences into visual forms that are deeply individual perceptions. With its vibrant palette of luscious pinks, reds, and purples pulsating across the canvas, The Big Chinese is akin to a page torn from the artist’s personal journal. Through her precisely curated cacophony of gestures that carry a deep and profound emotional weight, Jungwirth’s paintings defy easy categorisation, oscillating between abstraction and subtle representational elements. Executed in 2020 and capturing a deeply intimate and spontaneous moment in the artist’s life, the present work emerges from a series inspired by Francisco de Goya and Edouard Manet, in which the artist's influences, emotions and physical movements converged to create a raw and immediate expression of her inner world.
“Painting, for me, is about tension. I often work from my recollection of a motif. It takes time to arrive at an interesting tension and the right constellation of fields. Sometimes it’s spontaneous, other times I need to rework it. It’s all about the motif and process.”
Jungwirth’s spectrum ranges from paintings filled with dense strokes to those marked by spare brushwork, in which each dynamic offering is a testament to her physical engagement with the creative process, leaving behind a visceral trace of her presence. The Big Chinese is thus replete with fleshy pink hues, deep crimsons, and bruised magentas, that pulsate with a vibrant energy that seems almost alive, evoking her essence and a sense of vitality that is captivating. Jungwirth draws inspiration from what she refers to as ‘pretexts,’ including art history, political events, personal encounters, and her extensive travels around the world. These influences ignite a creative impulse within her, compelling Jungwirth to instinctively translate these experiences into paint on canvas. In the present work, Jungwirth lays bare her entire self, pouring every ounce of her being onto the canvas. Every brushstroke and smear are an intimate record of her emotions and thoughts.
“The real turning point happened incredibly late, thanks to the German painter Albert Oehlen. He was invited by the curators of the Essl Collection [of Austrian art] to curate an exhibition according to his taste from the works they had purchased. He put a big spotlight on my works in that show. After that, people suddenly began to recognise me. Then I had an exhibition in Krems, a large retrospective [at the Kunsthalle in 2014], a beautiful exhibition, and then things finally took off.”
Bridgeman Images
Jungwirth’s works were marginalised for decades, but now, the 84-year-old artist is represented by Thaddaeus Ropac and has major exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Palazzo Cini Gallery in Venice. Jungwirth’s beguiling and auratic output is held in prominent private collections across Europe and the United States – including the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and the Albertina in Vienna – and her expressive paintings have been the focus of major exhibitions at institutions such as the Kunstmuseum, Bonn in Germany, the Albertina Museum in Austria, and the Kunsthalle Krems in Austria. In 2021, Jungwirth was awarded the prestigious Grand Austrian State Prize.
