Was Maria Lassnig's Work a Painted Precursor to the Selfie?

Who? Austrian artist Maria Lassnig was best-known for her radical and abstracted self-portraits, which pioneered an introspective theory of 'self-awareness'. Born in Kappel am Krappfeldm Austria in 1919, Lassnig was raised mostly by her grandmother, and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna during the Second World War. Her work there was technical and skillful, betraying little of the Abstract Expressionism she would later advocate – and which would…