Brigitte Kowanz: Light Is What We See

Presents the art of light in all its facets from artist Brigitte Kowanz.

"What is light?" is the central question of Brigitte Kowanz's oeuvre. "Light is what we see" is her answer. It makes everything visible, yet remains invisible itself. Kowanz engages with this paradox in her light-based art. Using materials such as mirrors, black light, neon tubes, and glass bottles, Kowanz created objects and spatial artworks in which she staged light. This volume offers a retrospective experience of her oeuvre: alongside the central works, it includes iconic pieces showing that, even in the 1980s, she was engaging with topics that are current today, such as digitalization and new communication media in an information society.

Ralph Gleis is general director of the Albertina and curator of numerous exhibitions of art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Angela Stief is chief curator for contemporary art since 1945 at the Albertina and director of the Albertina modern.