Dora Maurer obituary

"From 1949 to 1989, Hungary had been under communist rule. Maurer was in her 50s before she could publicly work and show as she wished. Trained as a graphic artist at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (1956-61), Maurer had spent the 1960s and early 70s making experimental prints that were largely not seen in her own country."

"Bringing together 35 pieces from the half-century of Maurer's practice, the Tate show was greeted by British critics with baffled admiration. From lens-based art to performance to neo-abstraction, here was an artist whose work tracked the history of contemporary art, and did so with extraordinary power. Yet, for the most part, no one had heard of her."

"In Traces of a Circle (1974), held in the Tate, she pulled a series of proofs of the same image, each overlying the one before as a palimpsest. These harked back to the works she called pedotypes, in which Maurer walked over canvases in paint-covered feet, an elision of Yves Klein and Richard Long."

Dora Maurer, a Hungarian artist who died at 88, claimed her work benefited from lacking market exposure. Despite a White Cube gallery show and a major Tate Modern retrospective bringing together 35 pieces spanning five decades, her auction prices remained modest compared to her artistic significance. Trained as a graphic artist at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts from 1956-1961, Maurer spent the 1960s and early 1970s creating experimental prints largely unseen domestically. Her practice encompassed lens-based art, performance, and neo-abstraction, including works like pedotypes where she walked on paint-covered canvases and palimpsest prints. Communist rule from 1949 to 1989 prevented public exhibition and artistic freedom until her 50s, explaining her late international emergence and undervalued market position.

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