Inge Dick
Touched by light
14.03.2026 – 24.01.2027
The works of Inge Dick (b. 1941) are permeated by a central element: light in all its manifestations. Transitions from day to night, subtle nuances of sunlight, reflections and shadows—the artist makes all of this visible in her work.
INGE DICK’S EIGHTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY
Inge Dick is one of the most important international figures in the field of contemporary experimental photography and film. Through her intensive engagement with painting and photography, she recognized early on that light is never constant or objective. Natural light is a living phenomenon: it changes with the hours of the day, the weather, and the seasons.
Inge Dick’s works reveal what often escapes the naked eye. Her paintings, photographs, and films are poetic records of light. A hallmark of her artistic development is a deep devotion to making the invisible visible. Her research into light is grounded in four central principles that form the foundation of her artistic thinking: time and perception; seriality; geometric order and grids; and subtlety and precision.
The exhibition at the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich brings together for the first time a representative selection of works from all phases of the artist’s career—from the 1960s to the present day. The retrospective honors Inge Dick’s multifaceted oeuvre and is also an homage to the artist marking her eighty-fifth birthday.
THE POETRY OF LIGHT
Inge Dick’s work explores the phenomenon of light in profound ways. Early on, she created paintings with a palette knife—initially in color and later exclusively in white—in which subtly graduated grid structures make light across the surface perceptible. In parallel, she created black-and-white photographs in which changes in light and shadow influence the composition.
In her subsequent Polaroid series, Dick expanded her repertoire: light was now captured directly and made visible through color. In her later digital films and the series “jahres licht weiss“ this practice evolved into a filmic meditation. In her most recent series, “goldene Bilder“, light is not merely reflected, but emerges as the central actor in shaping the image’s impact. Thus an artistic path is revealed where light serves as the core compositional element—from the stillness of white to the radiance of gold.
Light is a phenomenon that sustains every living being. We cannot live without light; it is a mystery, it is my theme.
Throughout these series, the artist’s sensitivity to detail, precision, and exacting execution remains unmistakable. Her imagery is based on meticulous observation, patient repetition, and a deep belief in the inherent power of light. Inge Dick’s affinity for Zen philosophy is evident in her focus on the simple and essential. This approach lends her work a power that is not overt, but has a lasting effect and touches the viewer in a profound way.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Inge Dick was born in Vienna in 1941. She currently lives in Innerschwand am Mondsee (Upper Austria). Her creative journey began at a young age: in 1956, she enrolled in the Hetzendorf Fashion School, where she specialized in leather goods. She then studied for two semesters in the master class for printmaking at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna.
The artist has received numerous awards, including the Austrian Art Prize for Artistic Photography and the international André Evard Prize for Concrete-Constructive Art.
With her multifaceted body of work, Inge Dick has made a fundamental contribution to contemporary abstract and concrete art.
Curator: Gerda Ridler