Martha Jugnwirth

Martha Jungwirth (b. 1940) is an Austrian artist known for her expressive, gestural painting, which moves between abstraction and figuration. Since the 1960s, she has established a unique position in the art world through her intuitive, body-driven approach to painting. Her works emerge from a dialogue with colour and material—a process Jungwirth describes as an "adventure." Visible traces such as fingerprints, scratches, or shoe prints remain on the canvas as part of her physical expression within the artwork.

Hotel owner Naturhotel Forsthofgut in austria

My art is like a diary, seismographic. That is the method of my work. Drawing and painting are movements that pass through me.

"I always need a real starting point that I can transform.
The motifs are entirely peripheral; I don't aim to depict."

The artwork "Ohne Titel" by Martha Jungwirth at Naturhotel Forsthofgut.

Martha Jungwirth „Ohne Titel“ (2022)

Oil on paper and canvas

With the work ’Ohne Titel’ from the series ’Francisco de Goya, Stillleben mit Rippen und Lammkopf’ (2022), Jungwirth reinterprets the Spanish artist’s painting of the same name. She echoes the form of the lamb’s head and the butchered ribs that characterise Goya’s still life. The work was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Exhibitions

Since her first major exhibition with the artist group Wirklichkeiten at the Vienna Secession in 1968, Martha Jungwirth has been regularly featured in significant solo and group exhibitions.

Among her most notable solo exhibitions are the retrospective at Kunsthalle Krems (2014), the show curated by Albert Oehlen at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg (2010), and the presentation of her watercolours at Kunstmuseum Ravensburg (2018). In 2018, the Albertina in Vienna dedicated a major exhibition to her in honour of her Oskar Kokoschka Prize. On the occasion of her 80th birthday, a comprehensive retrospective was held at the Museum Liaunig in Neuhaus in 2020. The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf followed in 2022 with an exhibition covering her work from the 1970s to the present. In 2024, a major retrospective of her work was presented at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Jungwirth has also been prominently featured in international group exhibitions. In 1977, she participated in documenta 6 in Kassel. Her works have been shown at prominent institutions including Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2016), Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (2016), and Städel Museum in Frankfurt (2016). In 2021, her work was the subject of a major exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Martha Jungwirth has received numerous accolades for her artistic achievements. She was awarded the Msgr. Otto Mauer Prize in 1961, followed by the Theodor Körner Prize (1964) and the Joan Miró Prize (1966). In 2018, she received the prestigious Oskar Kokoschka Prize, which was succeeded by the Grand Austrian State Prize in 2021.