Martha Jungwirth Ohne Titel, from the series “Corona-Biester”, 2021

Over the past six decades, Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth has forged a singular approach to abstraction that is grounded in the body and closely observed perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the pandemic, she painted a large body of work, producing a form of diary of isolation that reflects on her connection with herself and the external world. In Ohne Titel, from the series “Corona-Biester” (2021), the silhouette of an animal is depicted on a white background, in a reduced pictorial language that verges on abstraction.

As in other works from her Corona-Biester (Corona-Beasts) series, Jungwirth was prompted to paint these fragile creatures by news reports of animals burning in bushfires in Australia. ‘There is something apocalyptic about that,’ she explains, ‘first the animals burn, then the people.’ In this work, the artist distances herself from her characteristic palette of reds and yellows, instead opting for tones that lean towards colder, more melancholy blues and purples. The herd of gesturally painted creatures evokes all the animals who have perished due to the destructive tendencies of humans over the course of successive civilisations.