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Austria

Austrian feminist art pioneer Valie Export dies at 85

Friday, 15 May 2026, 06:23 · 1 min read

Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker widely regarded as a foundational figure in feminist art, died in Vienna on Thursday at the age of 85. Born Waltraud Lehner in 1940, she adopted her alias in 1967 and rose to international recognition through provocative works that challenged the objectification of women, most notably her 1968 street performance "Tap and Touch Cinema," in which she invited passersby to touch her bare breasts through a miniature stage strapped to her chest. Her influence spread across generations of artists and was confirmed when Marina Abramović selected one of her pieces for a landmark 2005 retrospective at New York's Guggenheim Museum.

Sources
El PaísMuere la artista feminista austríaca Valie Export a los 85 años ↗︎The GuardianRenowned feminist artist and film-maker Valie Export dies aged 85 ↗︎
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