Lentos brings overlooked painter Erika Roessing back into view

The Lentos art museum in Linz is showcasing the work of long-overlooked Austrian artist Erika Roessing in an exhibition, ORF reports. Roessing’s paintings are on display in “The Loneliness of Things”, which aims to bring renewed attention to her work.

Her paintings feature lemons, oranges, birds and carefully arranged vases. Lentos director Hemma Schmutz said they radiate “a fascinating calm”, a quality she sees as especially valuable in a time of fast pace and media overload.

Roessing initially painted traditional still lifes, often featuring flowers, which were popular during the Nazi era. She later distanced herself from this early work and developed her distinctive style after the Second World War. In 1944, a bombing destroyed the studio she shared with her husband, the Upper Austrian graphic artist and painter Karl Rössing, along with much of her work to that point.

Roessing lived a relatively private life and supported her husband. After her sudden death in 1977, her work gradually fell into obscurity. The Lentos says it holds around 50 of her paintings, nearly a third of her surviving body of work. The exhibition includes about 90 works by Roessing, alongside works by her husband, and runs in the museum’s basement until 24 January 2027.