Priska Von Martin

For Priska von Martin, the catalyst in life was the desire to capture humanity as form. She tried to delineate artistically what constitutes human existence, including isolation, dysfunctionality, pain, but also harmony, wholeness, and beauty. She captured the essence of human existence in animal figures as well as women's bodies and ­torsos. Her art was aimed at the corporeal, the visibly physical--injury, dislocation, displacement--as well as the spiritual, the invisible, the intangible--emotions, instincts, conditions. Who was Priska von Martin? What hopes did she place in bequeath­ing her estate to her native Freiburg, so far away from her place of work in Munich, on the vague chance of being viewed and understood independently? If she was focusing on this (deferred) outside view, why did she scarcely document her oeuvre? Which parts of her life story did she want to leave in the dark? How do we treat the information we have about this artist, who is described as a tactful person?