Martha Jungwirth’s latest painting series is based on a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder which depicts Judith with the cut-off head of Holofernes (ca. 1530). The idea of similarity with a difference is structurally transferred to the small formats of this series (2015 – 16). Jungwirth says that she is working on gradually bringing the dense and pastose qualities of the small paintings to the large format. This is striking: a painter whose artistic practice started in the late 1950s, and picked up speed in the 1970s and 1980s, is still seeking to expand the logic of her field without leaving it in 2016. Jungwirth’s approach is flexible enough to allow for this. Many things stay the same, yet there are some decisive changes.
(Based on a text by Jörg Heiser)
Martha Jungwirth has occupied an important position in art history since the 1960s. She studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and was among the founding members of the loose ‘Wirklichkeiten’ (Realities) group of artists in 1968. But even then she was pursuing her own, distinctive path, oscillating between gesturally abstract and formal compositions. Jungwirth’s works in various media, such as pencil drawings, watercolors, and works in oil and ink, were exhibited at Documenta 6, in 1977.
