Jewish Museum focuses on Maria Austria
Kurier, June 20, 2023
German original: https://k.at/news/juedisches-museum-nimmt-maria-austria-in-den-blick/402492842
The Jewish Museum is doing to Maria Austria what she herself did throughout her life: focusing on the photographer. With the first solo exhibition of the photo artist's work under the imperative title "Focus! Now!" pays tribute to the Austrian-born photographer, who rose to stardom in her Dutch exile. With a comprehensive personal exhibition of her multifaceted works, a pedestal is being built for the photographer who bore her homeland in her name.
After all, the later Maria Austria was born Marie Oestreicher in 1915 in Karlsbad into a Jewish family of doctors. In Vienna she attended the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt and tried out the styles of her time, which is documented with early works in the show. Then in 1937, and thus before the Anschluss, she went to Amsterdam, as did her sister Lisbeth, a textile designer. The two founded the studio "Model en Foto Austria" in the Dutch canal city. It was only here, in exile, that Marie Oestereicher took the artist's name Maria Austria.
But even in her adopted country, Maria Austria was not safe from National Socialism. In 1943, the photo artist was forced to go into hiding, and from there she became involved in the resistance. The end of the war also brought a new beginning for Austria, as she founded the Particam photo agency with colleagues, including her partner Henk Jonker. And Maria Austria became a documentarian of the immediate post-war period.
In the years that followed, the artist found her true expression, which, however, was never limited to just one genre. Street scenes are as much a part of her oeuvre as portraits of artists or theater works. In 1954, she documented Anne Frank's hiding place with the photo series "Het Achterhuis" and later visited the Salzburg Festival. In the 1960s she documented Israel and its inhabitants and at the same time became the house photographer of the avant-garde Mickery Theater. Until her ultimately surprisingly early death in 1975, Maria Austria thus proved to be one of the outstanding camera eyes of her generation, as "Focus! Now!" proves.