Valie Export, the pioneering Austrian feminist artist known for challenging the conventions of art and cinema through body-centered, tactile works, died on May 14 at age 85, three days before her birthday. Her death was confirmed by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, which represents her. Over six decades, Export created influential works such as "TAP and TOUCH CINEMA" (1968) and "Action Pants: Genital Panic" (1968), using her own body to question gender norms and the nature of film. Born Waltraud Lehner in Linz, she reinvented herself as VALIE EXPORT in 1967, a name symbolizing her exportation of personal ideas. She was associated with the Viennese Actionists but developed her own expanded cinema practice, producing works like "Abstract Film No. 1" (1967–68) that redefined the medium.
Export's death marks the loss of a singular voice in contemporary art whose feminist critique and experimental approach influenced generations of artists. Her work remains urgent for its radical questioning of the body, cinema, and institutional power structures. As dealer Thaddaeus Ropac noted, her passing represents the end of a visionary perspective that reshaped European art in the second half of the 20th century. Export's legacy continues to resonate in ongoing debates about gender, identity, and the boundaries of art.