Birgit Jügenssen

“I wanted to call attention to the usual prejudices and role models ascribed to women in society, with which I was always confronted . . . .” Birgit Jürgenssen “Women and irony is still a taboo theme, as is women and humor. The price for this is to a large extent not being taken seriously.” Birgit Jürgenssen

The Austrian Birgit Jürgenssen (1949–2003) was one of the most outstanding feminist avant-garde artists in the world. Starting from the liberating potential of Surrealism and in a dialogue with her generation’s discourse on social critique, beginning in the late sixties she developed a multilayered, stylistically multifaceted kind of art. The female body and its metamorphoses were the focus of her work, which predominately comprised drawing, painting, and photography. The Sammlung Verbund has made possible the first monograph on her work. This richly illustrated volume includes previously unknown pieces from the artist’s estate, provides an analysis of Jürgenssen’s autonomous stance in art history, and examines her relationship to literature, psychoanalysis, and Structuralism.