Martha Jungwirth 'Herz der Finsternis' Nine shows to see in Venice during the Biennale

By Hili Perlson

Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness about the brutality of European colonialism in Africa greatly impacted artist Martha Jungwirth’s perspective on migration and displacement today. In her new stirring series ‘Herz der Finsternis’ (the German title of Conrad’s novella), the Austrian painter responds to the precarity of people seeking a better future by transporting profound emotional states through abstraction. Departing from the skin tones that have become synonymous with her style of abstraction – one that she has honed for six decades and is grounded in the corporeal experience – Jungwirth here uses a palette of greens and petrol, evoking both Conrad’s use of the jungle as a problematic metaphor and the dark depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

Martha Jungwirth
‘Herz der Finsternis’
Palazzo Cini Gallery
April 17 – September 29, 2024