The title of Lieselott Beschorner’s exhibition, Im Atem der Zeit [In the Breath of Time], is a direct reference to the environment in which her work comes into existence. It is only in the now of our days, as in the then of past decades, that her ideas could have taken shape. Their time-bound nature notwithstanding, her art lays claim to a universality that elevates it above its topical concerns and ensures its relevance in the future.

Lieselott Beschorner has made art for over seven decades and been a member of the Vienna Secession for just as long. When she was admitted to the Association of Visual Artists in 1951, she was among the first women members: the Secession, which had been founded in 1897, had remained a male preserve until shortly after the war. Only a few years later, in 1954, Beschorner presented her first solo exhibition at the Secession, followed by shows in 1966 and 1972, and her work was included in group exhibitions on a regular basis until the mid-1970s. Around that time, the artist took up teaching at a vocational school (she would continue to do so for over thirty years); meanwhile, new tendencies emerged that vied for attention, and her art faded from the spotlight.

Undeterred, Beschorner kept making art with the means at her disposal, building an oeuvre that is as complex as it is eclectic: her output ranges from abstract paintings to expressively representational drawings and collages, from ceramics and textile works—including the body of work that is probably most widely known today, the Puppas—to her most recent sculptures, like the Behutete Kopffiguren [Hatted-Head Figures, 2014], and a vast trove of drawings on the ubiquitous subject of the virus, among them the cycle of Weinende Omnichronisten [Weeping Omnichroniclers, 2022].

Programmed by the board of the Secession

Curated by Berthold Ecker and Jeanette Pacher

In conjunction with the exhibition by Lieselott Beschorner a book will be published in August 2022.