Maria Lassnig was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1941–1944, 1954), on scholarship in Paris (1951), and at the School of Visual Arts in New York (1970–1972), where she learned how to make animated films. She was professor at the Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (1980–1997). Her first exhibitions outside Austria were in Frankfurt am Main (1954), London (1960), and Paris (1961). She has held numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including venues like the the Städelmuseum, Frankfurt am Main (2004); the Kunsthaus Zürich (2003); mumok, Vienna (1985, 1999, 2009); Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1995); and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1994). Most recently her work was shown at MoMA PS1, New York (2014). In 1980 she represented Austria at the thirty-ninth Venice Biennale. She is an honorary member of Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna (awarded 2010). Among her prizes are the Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, 2005), the Max Beckmann Prize (2004), and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize (1998).