"Seek the extremes ..." - Dorothy Iannone

Since the 1960s Dorothy Iannone has been making oversized figurative paintings populated with a psychedelic, utopian mix of characters, objects and ornamental themes. Her work, much of it created for, with or about her one-time lover Dieter Roth, developed in the context of the experimental 60s, and years later, her unbowed expressiveness and vitality continue to inspire a new generation, including the curators of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. In this monograph Kunsthalle Wien contrasts her work with that of Lee Lozano, whose work will be shown along with Iannone's at the museum this season. Iannone and Lozano are very different, but Iannone's broad-minded messages of love and Lozano's caustic, hard-core eruptions both use uncompromising styles that combine graphics and comics-like gesture with texts. Both artists also began their careers far ahead of their time and appear today to have been precursors of many contemporary trends.