Spell

Artist Maria Lassnig (Austrian, 1919 - 2014)

Date2006

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 49 1/4 × 39 1/4 × 7/8 inches (125.1 × 99.7 × 2.22 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation–Commerce Bank, Trustee

Object number2011.10

SignedLL: "M. Lassnig"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Contemporary Art

Terms

DescriptionThis painting depicts a person rendered abstractly with painterly brushstrokes. The features are ambiguous and a specific individual cannot be identified. The person wears a red garment and is surrounded by a diaphanous white cloth, held aloft by the right hand. The figure-set against a black ground-is looking down, gazing toward the brightly illuminated, lower left edge of the painting. We are unable to discern what so emphatically has captured the person's attention.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Maria Lassnig — Die Kunst, die macht mich immer juenger, Staeditische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, February 27-March 30, 2009, no cat.

Maria Lassnig — Das neunte Jahrzehnt, MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Feburary 13-May 17, 2009, no cat.

Maria Lassnig, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, September 25, 2008-January 11, 2009, no cat.

Maria Lassnig, Serpentine Gallery, London, April 25-June 8, 2008, cover, 21.

Gallery Label

Maria Lassnig

Austrian, born 1919

Spell, 2006

Oil on canvas

Dramatic and mysterious, the woman in Spelllifts her transparent veil to reveal a glowing source of light. Is she casting a spell? Or is she spellbound by the white hot light before her? The artist considers all of her paintings to be self portraits. Through them, she seeks to reveal the psychological states she feels within her body: intimate and unpretentious, provocative and ironic, brave and always seeking.

Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation—Commerce Bank, Trustee, 2011.10

Provenance

With Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York;

Purchased from Friedrich Petzel Gallery by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2011.

Published References

Amy Sillman, “Carol Rama, Maria Lassnig, and Dorothy Iannone” Artforum, No. 4 (December 2009): unnumbered.

Sarah Kent, “Maria Lassnig, Baring the Soul” Art World (June/July 2008, Issue 5): 42-48, (repro.).

Maria Lassnig, (London: Serpentine Gallery, 2008): cover, 21 (repro.).

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