Happy Birthday: Painter Martha Jungwirth Turns 85 on Wednesday

In November of last year, a nameless large-format work by the Viennese artist achieved a world record price of 520,000 euros at an auction in the Dorotheum. The artist calls her escapes from the everyday "painting flights".

Promising Start

Jungwirth was born on January 15, 1940 in Vienna and studied at the University of Applied Arts from 1956 to 1963, where she received a teaching assignment in 1967, which she carried out for ten years. The start of her career was promising. At 21, she was already honoured with the Otto Mauer Prize. In 1968, she exhibited alongside Wolfgang Herzig, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Franz Ringel and Robert Zeppel-Sperl as the only woman in the group exhibition "Realities" at the Vienna Secession.

After her initial successes, she went to New York for a few months. In 1977, the crowning achievement: With her abstract dishwasher-rib watercolours from the "Indesit" series, Jungwirth was invited to Documenta 6 in Kassel. But then things quieted down around Jungwirth. For decades, the art market practically overlooked or ignored her. Even major museums did not exhibit her work.

But Jungwirth continued to work - consistently, but largely withdrawn in her Vienna studio. Until she was "rediscovered" by Albert Oehlen in 2010. The German artist curated a group show at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg at the time and was so impressed by her works that he dedicated an entire room to Jungwirth.

London, Paris, New York

Suddenly, at the age of 70, she was once again recognized internationally. London, Paris, New York, Tokyo - renowned museums and galleries worldwide are exhibiting her works. The Kunsthalle Krems (2014) and the Viennese Albertina (2018) also hosted exhibitions. Last year, the Guggenheim Bilbao celebrated the Austrian's color experiments with a large-scale retrospective. "For me, this is a highlight of my career," said Jungwirth.

In 2024, a Jungwirth exhibition was also on display at the Palazzo Cini in Venice. In 2021, she opened her first show at the Paris gallery of Thaddaeus Ropac with works created during the pandemic, and the following year, her paintings could be admired at the Ropac booth at the Madrid Art Fair ARCO. In 2019, she designed the 176 square meter Iron Curtain of the Viennese State Opera. In 2022, she became a member of the Austrian Art Senate.

Jungwirth's great love has always been watercolor, but oil paintings can also be found in her oeuvre. Her powerful images are held in a nonconformist style. She works with quick brush strokes and pasty bright colors, especially green, aggressive yellow, blue, and various shades of red. She once described her impulsive way of working as not thinking while painting. "To keep things flowing, chance plays a big role."

With sharp observational skills and personal feelings, Jungwirth analyzes people, animals, and landscapes, which she depicts on materials such as cardboard, canvases, paper, cartons, and even business books. She also makes references to art history, to painters she loves. Her cycles bear names like "Flooded Edges", "Cyclades - Mythical Space" or "Bali": In fact, it is mainly her numerous travels from which Jungwirth takes her impressions.

Jungwirth Honored

From 1969 until his death in 1990, Martha Jungwirth was married to the art historian and museum director Alfred Schmeller. Her numerous awards include the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2012) and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize (2018).

(APA/Red)

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