Birgit Jürgenssen
b. 1949, Austria
Austrian draftsman, born 1949
Birgit Jürgenssen (b. 1949, Vienna, Austria; d. 2003, Vienna, Austria) was an important figure of the international feminist avant-garde. She was educated at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (1968–1971) and first found success in 1975 when artist Valie Export invited her to participate in the exhibition, ‘MAGNA-Feminism: Art and Creativity’. Included in the show was Jürgenssen’s work Housewives’ Kitchen Apron (1975), in which she wore a sculpture of an apron in the shape an oven.
An eloquent but radical counter to the male-dominated Viennese Actionism movement, Jürgenssen’s diverse body of work stretched across performance, photography, drawing and sculpture and was heavily autobiographical focusing on the female body and its transformation. She powerfully subverted the clichés of gender representation, social stereotyping, fetishism and forced domestication of women. Only recently her work has been rediscovered and acknowledged for its significance.
Attention towards Jürgenssen’s work has been consistently highlighted by Galerie Hubert Winter since 1981. Hubert Winter was entrusted with her Estate by the artist at the time of her premature death aged 54, in 2003. Monographs by Gabriele Schor and Abigail Solomon-Godeau have helped to educate the world on the breadth and importance of Jürgenssen’s practice.
Jürgenssen has had solo exhibition at Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, Germany (2020); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2019); GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2019); Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (2018); CODEX Berlin, Germany (2018); Kunst Meran Merano Arte, Vienna, Austria (2015); Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna (2010–11); Sammlung Verbund, Vienna (2009); and MAK, Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria (2004).
Her work has been included in group shows at Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (2021); Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2020); Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland (2019); Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria (2020); Swiss Institute, New York, US (2019); Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain (2019); Kunshistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria (2018); Tate St Ives, UK (2018); La Monnaie de Paris, France (2017); MoMA Warsaw, Poland (2017); mumok, Vienna, Austria (2017); The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK (2016); Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2016); and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (2016).
Jürgenssen’s work has been acquired by major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MAK, Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna; Tate, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.