Birgit Sauer, Ikon, 1995, drypoint and aquatint; recipient of the San Zanobi International Prize, 21th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 1995.
The exhibition included nine prints made in 1996 and 1997. At the 21st International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Austrian artist Birgit Sauer received the San Zanobi award for promising young artists. She convinced the jury with both her youth and the expressive power of her large-sized prints mostly composed of two parts made in the drypoint technique occasionally combined with aquatint. Sauer refers to her prints as icons. They consist of shapes: from thought-out ovals through sharp triangular shapes that diagonally intervene into space to surfaces, serrated points and always also gentle strokes of lines that connect and surround. The second element is the colour tension between black and red or blue; with the last two being used in a very thoughtful way. In order to produce the large formats of her prints, they had to build a special press for intaglio printing.