Image: Maria Lassnig, Married Couple, 2001, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, KiCo Collection © Maria Lassnig Stiftung / 2026, ProLitteris, Zurich; Edvard Munch, Vampire in the Forest, 1916–1918, Munchmuseet, Oslo, photo: Munchmuseet, Oslo
Kunsthaus Zürich will present ‘Maria Lassnig and Edvard Munch: Flow of Paint = Flow of Life’ from 2 October 2026 to 21 February 2027. The exhibition, on the first floor of the Moser Building, brings the two artists’ works into direct relation for the first time.
Comprising around 150 works, including 78 paintings, the presentation examines bodies, emotions, illness and death, alongside the relationship between humans and nature. It places Munch’s focus on life, death and renewal alongside Lassnig’s inward-looking ‘body awareness pictures’, which take shape from her direct sense of her own body.
The exhibition includes loans from the Munchmuseet in Oslo and the Maria Lassnig Foundation in Vienna. Works listed for the presentation include Lassnig’s ‘Two Ways of Being (Double Self-Portrait)’ (2000), ‘Married Couple’ (2001), ‘Flow of Paint = Flow of Life’ (1996), ‘Balled-Up Violence’ (1988), ‘Sleeping with a Tiger’ (1975), ‘Three Graces’ (2011), ‘Chain of Tradition’ (1983) and ‘The Great Wave’ (1995), alongside Munch’s ‘Girls on the Pier’ (1901), ‘Vampire in the Forest’ (1916–1918), ‘Two Human Beings. The Lonely Ones’ (c. 1935), ‘Madonna’ (1895), ‘Self-Portrait with the Spanish Flu’ (1919) and ‘Winter Night’ (c. 1900).
Kunsthaus Zürich and Hamburger Kunsthalle are presenting the exhibition.
