Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker known for her provocative feminist works that challenged the male gaze, has died at age 85. Her foundation announced she died in Vienna on Thursday, three days before her 86th birthday. Export gained notoriety in the late 1960s for low-budget performances such as "Tapp und Tastkino" (1968), where she invited shoppers to touch her bare breasts through a tiny curtain strapped to her chest. She also co-founded the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative, participated in documenta (1977, 2007) and the Venice Biennale (1980), and was a professor of multimedia and performance at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.
Export's death marks the loss of a singular perspective in contemporary art, as her work is now recognized as a milestone in feminist art for exposing patriarchal power structures and the objectification of the female body. Her gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac called her "one of the most visionary feminist artists to emerge in Europe in the second half of the 20th century," noting her influence across generations. Her legacy includes inspiring younger artists like Marina Abramović, who re-enacted Export's "Genital Panic" in 2005, and the establishment of a Valie Export centre for media and performance art in Linz in 2015.