Body check

Maria Lassnig, Kirsty Bell, Anna Fricke, Veit Loers, Peter Pakesch, Letizia Ragaglia

BODY CHECK presents two illustrious artists of the late 20th century who, in an era dominated by abstract painting and nascent political correctness, ventured to spotlight in their artistic work the human body, primarily their own. In their depictions, they stage both the female and male body in a grotesque manner, theatrically dramatizing the torso as well as the limbs, head, eyes, hands, and feet. Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) articulated this humorous grotesque discourse across the decades as an artistic means of expression fraught with self-irony and also as a feminist weapon. The self is presented as torso, as animal, with prostheses, or in a permanent state of organic metamorphosis. Martin Kippenberger's (1953-1997) paintings, sculptures, and drawings are pervaded by an enigmatic spirit of the grotesque, in which comical touches and dark humor evoke the painful, even tragic...