Fergus McCaffrey is proud to present its third exhibition of the work of Birgit
Jürgenssen (1949–2003). The show of drawings, cyanotypes, and other photographic
works will be on view at Fergus McCaffrey, St. Barth, on 6 February to 26 March with an
opening reception on 6 February from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
Born and educated in Vienna, Jürgenssen died prematurely at the age of fifty-four. Her
artwork received scant attention during her lifetime; however, recent monographs by
Gabriele Schor and Abigail Solomon-Godeau have begun to spread awareness of the
depth and breadth of Jürgenssen’s artistic achievement.
“Birgit Jürgenssen is the missing link that is
finally being discovered not only for Austrian
feminism between Maria Lassnig and Valie
Export, but also for the international women’s
art movement from Francesca Woodman to
Cindy Sherman. As a result of her Surrealist
and Structuralist tradition within this
spectrum, she occupies a universal position.
In order to better understand her status:
Birgit Jürgenssen represents a contemporary
position in the line of Meret Oppenheim and
Louise Bourgeois.” —Peter Weibel
While she is perhaps best known for her
connection to the Austrian feminist movement
of the 1970s, equally important is her
engagement with Surrealism and her concern
for materials and processes.
Jürgenssen’s portraits often expose gender
codes and roles: for example, Frog Shoulder
Belt, 1974, presents the female body modified and armored; Untitled, 1971, shows a
group of women looking directly at the viewer and lifting their skirts, as if confronting the
viewer with the idea that the role of women is to be seen as visual pleasure.
Jürgenssen’s art does not focus exclusively on gender issues, though. In the 1970s,
her subjects expanded into the realm of the surreal with dreamlike vistas. Within the
exhibition, one of her drawings depicts a larger-than-life hand with a gun floating over
the tips of its fingers, both suspended over a mountain ridge (The Echo in the
Mountains, 1977). In another work, a modern train soars from the top of a mountainscape
in the distance into another train’s open window (Untitled, 1973).
Her series Stoffarbeiten (Fabric Works), created from the late 1980s to the early 1990s,
consists of experimental photographic prints mounted on canvases, which are screwed
to iron frames she herself constructed. Thin, translucent fabrics such as gauze are
stretched over the surface, veiling and slightly obscuring the images. The photographs
themselves are created through a range of processes, including photograms,
solarization, and multiple exposures. The sculptural presence of many of these works is
striking. The juxtaposition of hard welded iron frames and delicate textile further
emphasizes their materiality.
In another series, Jürgenssen employed the cyanotype technique, one of the oldest
contact-printing processes, in which the blue hue creates an ethereal effect. The blur of
the subject reduces figures to silhouettes, rendering portraits as simple features, adding
an enigmatic element. Elsewhere, Jürgenssen used multiple overlays, which
complicate the works, increasing the sense of otherworldliness and distortion.
Jürgenssen’s adaptation of this method points to the botanist Anna Atkins, who is
considered the first woman to create photographs and the first to publish a book of
cyanotype illustrations.
Jürgenssen studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1967–71, and from 1980
to 1997 she lectured first at that university and then at the Academy of Fine Arts
Vienna. Her works have been recognized and shown by Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna,
since 1979. They have also been featured in recent museum exhibitions, including XL:
19 New Acquisitions in Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2013–14; the
Gwangju Biennale, 2014, Gwangju, South Korea, curated by Jessica Morgan; and
Woman: The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s; Works from the Sammlung Verbund,
Vienna, at BOZAR (Palais des Beaux-Arts), Brussels; Mjellby Konstmuseum,
Halmstad, Sweden; and Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2014–15.
