Martha Jungwirth channels psychoanalysis through gestural abstraction

There exists a peculiar alchemy in the act of artistic translation, wherein the accumulated weight of history, place and human consciousness transforms into pure gesture and colour. Martha Jungwirth, the Vienna based painter, has long mastered this transmutation, and her captivating ‘Berggasse 19’ series represents a profound meditation on the birthplace of psychoanalysis itself.

The works take their genesis from the storied address at Berggasse 19 in Vienna, where Sigmund Freud established his revolutionary clinic and lived for forty seven years. This seminal location, before Freud’s exodus to London in 1939 in flight from the Nazi regime, becomes not mere subject matter but rather a philosophical point of departure. Jungwirth distils the essence of this space, this crucible of psychological enquiry, into compositions that pulse with unfettered emotion and impulsive mark making.

What renders these paintings so arresting is their radical formal vocabulary. Jungwirth orchestrates oil paint across canvas and board with extraordinary liberty, oscillating between highly diluted applications that bleed and cascade like tears across the composition, and passages of thickly applied, glossy daubs that sit proudly on the surface like celestial constellations. One can trace the precise trajectory of her brush across each work, imbuing the pieces with a haptic sensibility that engages the viewer’s entire sensorium.

The surfaces teem with gestural incident. Smears, drips and spatters streak in all directions, creating a palimpsest of painterly decision making that speaks to what Jungwirth herself describes as a ‘seismographic’ process. This is painting as emotional seismograph, registering the tremors and reverberations of memory, place and the unconscious mind. Each mark functions as testimony to an inner landscape made visible.

The exhibition presents itself as an extraordinary opportunity to encounter abstraction at its most refined and emotionally resonant. The paintings command the viewer’s attention through their sheer formal audacity, yet simultaneously invite deeper contemplation on the intersection of place, psychology and artistic expression.

The works appear at Frieze London, where Thaddaeus Ropac presents the series at Booth D22 through October eighteenth, 2026. Following this presentation, the gallery will host a significant solo exhibition of Jungwirth’s work at its Milan location in November 2026, further cementing her position within the contemporary art discourse.

Imagery courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac (@thaddaeusropac).