Early Life and Education Maria Lassnig, born September 8, 1919, in Kappel am Kraffeld, Austria, experienced a formative childhood shaped by her mother’s turbulent relationship with an older man—a dynamic that instilled in Lassnig a profound understanding of familial complexities. Largely raised by her grandmother, this early environment would become a recurring motif in her artistic explorations. Her academic pursuits began at the Aca…