(Kappel, Carinthia, 1919–2014 Vienna)
“Der rote Zorn”, (The red rage) 1984, signed Maria Lassnig on the reverse, oil on canvas, 72 x 65 cm, framed

„Der rote Zorn” was signed by Maria Lassnig in 2013 in the foundation in the presence of Hans Werner Poschauko.

Illustrated and registered:
Maria Lassnig. Ihr Leben und ihr malerisches Werk, Ihre kunstgeschichtliche Stellung in der Malerei des 20. Jahrhunderts, Verlag Murken-Altrogge, 1990, p. 23 (ill.), p. 473/379

Provenance:
Kunsthaus Lempertz, 28 May 2003, lot 243
Im Kinsky, 19 March 2013, lot 116
Private Collection, Vienna

One has to have seen or felt the world, that is, one must know something specific, in order to grasp it and to make it. And not only to stand in passing or in the dark.

He only paints because he likes the names of the colours:
sepia, umber, titanium white, phthalo green, cerulean blue.
Maria Lassnig. Die Feder ist die Schwester des Pinsels. Tagebücher 1943-1997. published by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Du Mont. 2000

...Physical sensation is visually difficult to define, where does it begin, where does it end, what shape does it have, pointed, round, jagged - and to explore this is like fencing in clouds, pinning down realms of mist, physical mysticism.
I almost have to apologise, as actual bodies were created in an undertaking that sounds more like research than art.
This is because my knowledge of the real distances between forehead and nose, neck and chest, was not switched off and left as artistic compromise.
What appears to be a deformation of reality is not, because reality takes place on another level, the emotional level. If this often seems congruent with what is visually perceptible, it is because my sense of distance, trained on external things, has become blind certainty. Thus, external reality, which everyone sees on the body, becomes congruent with felt reality, which is so difficult to define.
Maria Lassnig

From: Catalogue, Museum Moderner Kunst/Museum of the 20th Century, Vienna 1985