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This large-scale work by the Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth captivates at first glance with its powerful brushwork, bold expressiveness and nuanced use of colour. One fancies that one discerns something figurative, which then disappears into abstraction again at that very instant. The thin cardboard background allows fields of colour and lines to stand out in a three-dimensional way. Very dark brushstrokes are complemented by shades of grey and even white. Many different shades ranging from red to purple as well as blue lines can be discerned, with the oil paint applied partly in a thick impasto and partly in a translucent, glazed style.

At the time of creating this work, Martha Jungwirth was abandoning her concrete, reality-oriented painting style, in which everyday objects, landscapes or figurative elements were still clearly recognisable, and was developing further towards abstraction. These are gestural compositions in her own unique colour palette, which appear to float in the pictorial space.

(Clarissa Mayer-Heinisch)