For centuries, the history of art has been dominated by men. As we look in the history books, long lists of male artists can be found. Sometimes labeled as the „genius“ in his field and/ or decade.Therefore the canon of art has been mostly told in a patriarchal as well as eurocentric way. In the last century this pattern has slightly cracked. Amongst the men artists, some female or even non-binary artists appeared. The aim of this project was to find, firstly, one flinta* artist, research their work and life. And secondly, to create screen prints inspired by their oeuvre. the original style of the artist doesn‘t need to be exactly transfered. It should be moreover interpreted, and any resemblance is allowed to be broken.
In terms of technique, the project had its entire focus on screen printing and (computer lead) stitching. Another challenge we‘ve been given, was the use of the colour: blue. But blue in all its shades: from night-blue to turquoise everything was allowed. The stitching, on top of the prints, served as the Add-on of our artists life story, and should therefore open another layer of storytelling through textiles...
My chosen artist was: Maria Lassnig. An contemporary artist from Austria, that is especially known for her colourful, sometimes abstract paintings. Lassnig used different geometrical forms to show her human feelings in the paintings. Sometimes they are disrupting but often there can be found humor or sarcasm in them. Whilst I visited a life drawing class at university, I decided to translate my naturalistic drawings into an individual interpretation of Lassnigs‘ style. The screen prints evolved, showing a bunch of different abstracted figures.
One life detail of Lassnig I found especially interesting, was her 10 year living/ working period in New York City. It was a time of her life, filled of financial worries and frustration of the political state in Europe (after WWII). Later it also turned out to be a big turning point in her career, as she left NYC to become the first female professor at the Academy of Arts, Vienna. I tried to highlight this time, by including „typical american“ symbols in my stitching . Suddenly the crowd of people isn‘ t naked anymore. Each one wears a little liberty crown, although its a little bit uneven as well.
