Valie Export facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Valie Export
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Valie Export in 2013
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| Born |
Waltraud Lehner
17 May 1940 |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Known for | Artist |
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Notable work
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Cinema Work, Photography, Sculpture, Computer Animations |
| Movement | Avant-Garde, Performance art, Contemporary art |
| Awards | Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria |
Valie Export (born May 17, 1940) is an Austrian artist. She is known for her unique and thought-provoking art. Her work often includes public performances and special types of film. She also creates video art, computer animations, photos, sculptures, and writes about modern art.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Valie Export was born Waltraud Lehner in Linz, Austria. She grew up in Linz with her mother and two siblings. She later studied painting, drawing, and design in Vienna. She attended the National School for Textile Industry.
Artistic Career Highlights
Starting in the 1960s and 1970s
In 1967, Waltraud Lehner changed her name to VALIE EXPORT. This was a strong way for her to show her independence. It also helped her stand out in the art world of Vienna. At that time, many male artists were famous for their bold performance art. Valie Export said that the art movement in the city helped her develop her own ideas.
Her early public performances are now famous in the history of feminist art. Feminist art often explores women's experiences and challenges old ideas about gender.
Some of her artworks, like Invisible Adversaries, "Syntagma," and "Korpersplitter," connect her body to historical buildings. This shows how women's bodies and roles have been shaped by history. It highlights her feminist and political views in art.
Breaking New Ground with Video Art
Export created a very important video piece called Facing a Family in 1971. This was one of the first times video art was shown on television. The video was broadcast on an Austrian TV show. It showed a middle-class Austrian family eating dinner while watching TV. When other families watched this, it made them think about their own lives and how they watched television.
In 1972, Valie Export wrote "Women’s Art: A Manifesto." A manifesto is a public statement of ideas. In it, she asked women to "speak so that they can find themselves." She wanted women to create their own image and change how society saw them. She believed art could help women define themselves and meet their needs.
Based on her manifesto, Export organized an art show in Vienna in 1975. It was called MAGNA. Feminism: Art and Creativity. This show was important because it featured feminist artists and helped tell their story in art history.
Feature Films and Later Works
In 1977, her first full-length film, Unsichtbare Gegner, was released. She wrote the script with Peter Weibel. The film is about a young photographer named Anna. Anna starts to believe that aliens are taking over people around her. The movie suggests her worries come from old ideas about how women should act. These ideas go against what she truly wants.
Her 1983 experimental film, Syntagma, explored the female body. Export used different film techniques to show the body in new ways. She believes that throughout history, men have controlled how the female body is shown in art and books. She said in an interview, "The female body has always been a construction." This means it has been built up by others' ideas.
Her 1985 film The Practice of Love was shown at a major film festival in Berlin.
Since 1995, Export has been a professor. She teaches multimedia performance at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in Germany.
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In 2016, the city of Linz bought her collection of artworks and papers. They opened a research center to study her work.
Also in 2016, Bard College held an exhibition about Export's 1977 film Unsichtbare Gegner. The show included her work and art by other artists who were inspired by her.
In 2019, Valie Export won the Roswitha Haftmann Prize. This is a very large art prize in Europe.
Selected Works
Filmography
- Splitscreen - Solipsismus (1968)
- INTERRUPTED LINE (1971)
- ...Remote…Remote... (1973)
- Mann & Frau & Animal (1973)
- Adjungierte Dislokationen (1973)
- Invisible Adversaries (Unsichtbare Gegner, 1976)
- Menschenfrauen (1977)
- Syntagma (1983)
- The Practice of Love (Die Praxis der Liebe, 1984)
- I turn over the pictures of my voice in my head (2008)
Awards and Recognition
- 1990: City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts
- 1992: Austrian Prize for video and media art
- 1995: Sculpture Award at the Generali Foundation
- 1997: Gabriele Münter Prize
- 2000: Oskar Kokoschka Prize
- 2000: Alfred Kubin Prize Big Price culture of Upper Austria
- 2003: Gold Medal for services to the City of Vienna
- 2005: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- 2009: Honorary Doctorate of the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz
- 2010: Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
- 2019: 19th Roswitha Haftmann Prize
- 2020: Golden Nica Visionary Pioneer of Feminist Media Art Prix Ars Electronica
- 2021: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society
