Birgit Jürgenssen. Rupture of Sensuality

This comprehensive monograph on the Austrian artist Birgit Jürgenssen offers a fresh and extensive insight into her nearly 40-year career. As early as the age of eight, she combined her name with that of the Spanish master in a schoolbook to form ‘BICASSO Jürgenssen’. Her early work is characterised by remarkable ‘shoe art’ and feminist-subversive, ironic drawings. Since Jürgenssen was never concerned with a recognizable style, the monograph reveals her artistic diversity and her spirit of experimentation. The essays illustrate Jürgenssen's intellectual horizon, which spans from Surrealism through Freudian psychoanalysis to Structuralism. Furthermore, Jürgenssen's longstanding interest in Japanese aesthetics and culture, as well as their influence on her artistic work, is presented here for the first time. Born in Vienna, Birgit Jürgenssen (1949–2003) began her photographic practice in 1963. A 1967 residency in Paris introduced her to Surrealist poetry and the works of Antonin Artaud, influences that would shape her artistic trajectory. Following her graduation from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1971, she gained prominence through her participation in the 1975 exhibition MAGNA – Feminism, Art and Creativity, curated by VALIE EXPORT. From 1982 onward, she taught with Arnulf Rainer's master class at the Academy of Fine Arts, where she established the photography curriculum and served as a professor until the end of her life.