Birgit Jürgenssen

Birgit Jürgenssen (19492003) was an Austrian photographer, painter, graphic artist, curator and teacher who specialized in feminine body art with self-portraits and photo series, which have revealed a sequence of events related to the daily social life of a woman in its various forms including an atmosphere of shocking fear and common prejudices. She was acclaimed as one of the "outstanding international representatives of the feminist avant-garde". She lived in Vienna. Apart from holding solo exhibitions of her photographic and other art works, she also taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Biography Jürgenssen was born in Vienna, Austria in 1949. Between 1968 and 1971 she studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She first gained attention for her photography with her participation in the MAGNA-Feminismus: Kunst und Kreativität (MAGNA feminism: art and creativity) exhibition. She is remarked as one of the "Global Feminist Outstanding Figures", and lives in Austria -- she also taught students at the Vienna Application Arts Colledge and Vienna Arts School. Jürgenssen worked as a lecturer and curator.

Jürgenssen died on 25 September 2003 at the age of 54.

Work and style From the late 1960s, she developed her diverse photographic art forms which revolved around the female body and its transformation.

Jürgenssen's photographic works, numbering 250, were exhibited in a retrospective held by the Sammlung Verbund and the Bank Austria Art Forum; 50 of these works are exclusively exhibited by the Sammlung Verbund, Vienna. In another work of 1974 titled "Amazon" she has photographed "mother and child" in a standing pose with hands held like "latter-day holy figures on a tall iron chair." The second monograph was published in 2011 by Prestel which was edited by Gabriele Schor and Heike Eipeldauer.

Gabriele Schor (eds.): Birgit Jürgenssen. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009 Gabriele Schor, Heike Eipeldauer (eds.): Birgit Jürgenssen. Ausst. Kat. Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna. Munich, Prestel, 2010 Natascha Burger, Nicole Fritz (eds.): Birgit Jürgenssen. I am. Ausst. Kat. Kunsthalle Tübingen, GAMeC Bergamo, Louisiana Museum. Munich, Prestel, 2018

Other publications Landesgalerie Oberösterreich: Birgit Jürgenssen - früher oder später. Anlässlich der gleichnamigen Ausstellung in der Oberösterreichischen Landesgalerie, Linz, 12. Februar - 15. March 1998. Bibliothek der Provinz, Weitra 1998 . Peter Noever (Hrsg.): Birgit Jürgenssen. Schuhwerk - Subversive Aspects of "Feminism". [Katalog anlässlich der gleichnamigen Ausstellung im MAK Wien, 17. March - 6. June 2004] MAK, Vienna 2004 . Gabriele Schor (eds.): WOMAN. The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s. Works from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Vienna. Ausst. Kat. BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, 2014 Rita E. Täuber (eds.): Gnadenlos. Künstlerinnen und das Komische. Ausst. Kat. Kunsthalle Vogelmann / Städtische Museen Heilbronn. Wienand Verlag, Köln, 2012. Brigitte Huck (et al.): Die Damen. Ausst. Kat. Zeitkunst Niederösterreich, St. Pölten. Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2013. The Museum of Modern Art, New York (eds.): Photography at MOMA. 1960 – Now. Ausst. Kat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2015. Massimo Gioni, Roberta Tenconi (eds.): The Great Mother. Ausst. Kat. Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Mailand. Mailand, Skira Editore, 2015. Patricia Allmer (ed.): Intersections. Women artists/surrealism/modernism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.