Maria Lassnig, Hauser & Wirth

Avant-garde painter and film-maker Maria Lassnig was woefully overlooked in her lifetime. In fact, when she died two years ago at the age of 94 she was only just emerging from art-world obscurity. Her startling works, though, are some of the most original of the 20th century. Lassnig paints bodies, vulnerable and savagely observed: bluish pink, bruised reds, abbreviated writhing figures. You can discover the work of this remarkable artist at Hauser & Wirth in early 2017.

Lassnig dedicated her life to what she termed ‘body awareness painting’. Her concern was not how the body looks, but how it feels - what it's like to have aches, limbs, genitals, sicknesses, depression, desire. "Truth resides in the emotions produced within the physical shell," she said.

Born in Austria, Lassnig tutored in Vienna and then spent formative years in Paris and New York in the '50s and '60s, where she was exposed to Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. She was a feminist - deeply aware of her own female body and critiquing within her work women's role in the home and society, as well as in art history and religion.

The upcoming Hauser & Wirth exhibition spans works made from 1950 - 2014, gathering together together drawings, water-colours. We can't wait.