Küchenbild rosa, 1994-2003

In the small-format painting Küchenbild rosa (1994–2003), a central figure consists of white, cloud-like brushstrokes. The figure sits on a yellow chair while stretching out its legs across the table, its overall balance maintained only by the legs of the chair. Beyond the formal ambiguity, Galli manages to undermine the laws of physics. It is unclear whether the figure shares existence with the table, the table with the chair, or vice versa. It is impossible to tell where any division begins or ends, as each contour seems to merge into the other and they grow together. The chair with a rounded backrest is recognizable from the artist’s book Ja, in which the domestic scene of her Friedenau studio is documented several times, suggesting again that Galli is influenced by her surroundings. The table in the painting is set for a meal, with a full plate, knife, spoon, fork, and a half full wineglass. The background is absorbed by the color pink, which although widely applied maintains small gaps in its application, partially exposing the underlying base layer. A pink palette was also commonly used by the Austrian painter Maria Lassnig, who through self-portraiture transformed the female human form, often blurring gender specificity, the aging process, and traditional ideas of beauty. Lassnig’s painting Die Sense kann warten (1985) could be interpreted as a simple task made fantastical: a geometrically abstracted figure in pink lies on the ground facing upward appearing to garden, its sheering tools cut across the plane.