Margit Palme
The Gaze

Margit Palme’s female figures inhabit a world defined by patriarchal structures. Adopting dynamic poses that are at times provocative, they endeavour to master their lives with skill and verve. For more than six decades the artist has been employing aquatint etching. Margit Palme is a master of this intaglio technique, which combines linear precision with colour reduction. She uses it to translate her image of women, which is centred on strength and self-determination, into vivid pictorial metaphors.

Palme’s unique contribution to female art lies in her precise observations and studies of the real needs of her fellow women. She does not use her aquatints to accuse, but rather to point out. Her invariably self-confident female protagonists confront their personal imperfections, challenges and fears, and at times with a dash of irony. This allows them to be transformed into figures of identification for us all.

Over the course of decades of intensive artistic labour, Margit Palme has developed a striking and distinctive personal style through which she also motivates younger female artists to express their individual feminine approach to art with self-assurance. The oeuvre of the winner of the 2023 Cultural Award of the Province of Upper Austria is attracting ever more international interest and has recently received recognition in exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland.

Curator: Brigitte Reutner-Doneus