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Birgit Jürgenssen: Nocturnal Light

Past exhibition
17 April - 19 May 2018
  • Press Release
  • Press
  • Selected Works
  • Installation
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Three sources of nocturnal light (Angel, Moon, Torch), 1987  Acrylic paint and chalk on linen  173.4 x 89.6 cm, 68 1/4 x 35 1/4 ins, each panel  173.4 x 277.8 cm, 68 1/4 x 109 3/8 ins, overall, framed
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Double-Moon, 1987  Acrylic and chalk on linen  84.5 x 84.5 cm, 33 1/4 x 33 1/4 ins  Signed & dated
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Jeder möchte string... (Everyone wants to string...), 1987  Photograph on linen, paper, fabric and chalk  24 x 40 cm, 9 1/2 x 15 3/4 ins, each panel  76.5 x 41.5 cm, 30 1/8 x 16 3/8 ins, overall, framed  Signed, dated, marked, labeled
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1988  Colour photograph behind fabric  39 x 29.5 cm, 15 3/8 x 11 5/8 ins, each panel  40.5 x 61 cm, 16 x 24 1/8 ins, overall, framed  Unique
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1988  Colour photograph behind fabric  39 x 29.5 cm, 15 3/8 x 11 5/8 ins, each panel  40 x 90 cm, 15 3/4 x 35 3/8 ins, overall, framed  Unique
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1988  Colour photograph behind fabric  29.5 x 39 cm, 11 5/8 x 15 3/8 ins, each panel  40 x 90 cm, 15 3/4 x 35 3/8 ins, overall, framed  Unique  Signed, dated
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1990  Cyanotype, color photograph and fabric  39 x 29.5 cm, 15 3/8 x 11 5/8 ins, each panel  40 x 90 cm, 15 3/4 x 35 3/8 ins, overall, framed  Unique  Signed & dated
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Regal (Bookshelf for Raymond Chandler), 1990/91  Bookshelf, mixed media  214.8 x 127.4 x 15.2 cm, 84 5/8 x 50 1/8 x 6 ins, bookcase  Unique  Signed, dated and marked
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Narziß und Echo / Narcissus and Echo [Diptych], 1991  Transparency, glass, lamps, metal frames and wood  30 x 43.6 cm 11 3/4 x 17 1/8 ins
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Narziß und Echo / Narcissus and Echo [Diptych], 1991  Transparency, glass, lamps, metal frames and wood  30 x 43.6 cm 11 3/4 x 17 1/8 ins
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1995  Lifetime 3D colour photograph  27 x 21 cm, 10 5/8 x 8 1/4 ins, framed  Unique  Signed, dated
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Ich bin. / I am., 1995  Blackboard, chalk and sponge mounted on wooden plate  30.9 x 25.5 x 3 cm, 12 1/8 x 10 1/8 x 1 1/8 ins  Signed & dated
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled, 1996  12 colour photographs  12.8 x 8.8 cm, 5 1/8 x 3 1/2 ins, each  58 x 52 cm, 22 7/8 x 20 1/2 ins, overall, framed  Unique
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled (Köperprojektion / Body Projection), 1988/2009  Estate colour photograph  50 x 70 cm, 19 3/4 x 27 1/2 ins  56.5 x 76.5 cm, 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 ins, framed  Edition 1/3  Printed in 2009
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled (Köperprojektion / Body Projection), 1988/2009  Estate colour photograph  50 x 70 cm, 19 3/4 x 27 1/2 ins  56.5 x 76.5 cm, 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 ins, framed  Edition 2/3  Printed in 2009
  • Birgit Jürgenssen  Untitled (Köperprojektion / Body Projection), 1988/2009  Estate colour photograph  70 x 50 cm, 27 1/2 x 19 3/4 ins  76.5 x 56.5 cm, 30 1/8 x 22 1/4 ins, framed  Edition 1/3  Printed in 2009
View image gallery

It is as if we have crossed into night, where in moonlight the world appears as half shadows and emergent forms. As we make our way through the dark we become aware that things are not what they might at first seem to be. The figures and forms that are perceived in the dark can change dramatically with examination.

Julien Robson, John Hansard Gallery,
Nekyia. Night See Ride. Night Lake Crossing, exhibition catalogue, Southampton, UK, 1987

Alison Jacques Gallery in collaboration with the Birgit Jürgenssen Estate, Vienna, presents Nocturnal Light, a solo exhibition of work by the Austrian artist Birgit Jürgenssen (b.1949, Vienna). Whereas Jürgenssen's 2013 solo show at the gallery focused on works from the 1970s, the current exhibition presents later work, made between 1987 - 1996. Jürgenssen, who died in 2003 aged 54, left several decades of work from performative photography to painting, drawing, and sculpture.

The title Nocturnal Light is taken from one of the largest works in the show, made in 1987, a mixed media on linen triptych which depicts three sources of nocturnal light: angel, moon and torch. Another painting, Double-Moon from the same year continues this narrative and explores the symmetry between day and night, light and shadow or reality and fantasy. This work is from a series originally exhibited in Jürgenssen's only UK museum solo exhibition Nekyia. Night See Ride. Night Lake Crossing, curated by Julien Robson first shown at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (1987). In the same year the exhibition also travelled to IKON Gallery, Birmingham and the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol.

The main focus of this show is on Jürgenssen's experimental photographic work from her fabric series. These consist of photographic prints mounted on canvas, which are screwed to iron frames that Jürgenssen constructed herself. Thin, translucent fabrics are stretched over the surface, veiling and slightly obscuring the images. The photographs themselves are created through a range of processes, including photograms, solarisation, and multiple-exposures. In some of the works, Jürgenssen employs cyanotype, a contact printing technique which creates a blue tint that reduces her figures and objects to silhouettes and dreamlike forms.

Born and educated in Vienna, Jürgenssen studied at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (1967-71) and lectured at both the University of Applied Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (1980-97). Her work has been featured in museum exhibitions including XL: 19 New Acquisitions in Photography, curated by Sarah Meister and Eva Respini, MoMA, New York (2013-2014); The 10th Gwangju Biennale, Burning Down The House, curated by Jessica Morgan, South Korea (2014); Women House, curated by Camille Morineau, La Monnaie de Paris, France (2017). Jürgenssen is included in: Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired By Her Writings, curated by Laura Smith, Tate St Ives, UK (2018) and The Shape of Time, curated by Jasper Sharp, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna (2018). A retrospective of Birgit Jürgenssen entitled Snow Storm will open at the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany in November 2018. Jürgenssen's work has been acquired by major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MAK, Vienna; Tate, London and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

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