Art / Brut Center Gugging

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“House of Artists”, painted facade
Painting by August Walla on ceramics, today on the grounds of the Gugging Art Center

The Art / Brut Center Gugging is a cultural center that is located on the former clinical site of the Lower Austrian State Nervous Clinic Ost - Klosterneuburg-Gugging, which was closed in 2007 .

present

The Art / Brut Center Gugging consists of the following sub-institutions:

In the current constellation of the cultural center, the historically grown sub-institutions interlock: the Haus der Künstler is a fully supervised residential facility for artists with a psychiatric background or disability. In the residential facility, the basis for the artistic activity of the residents is created. In the house of the artists and especially in the open studio, artists are individually supported and encouraged in the creative process. The museum gugging and the galerie gugging provide the infrastructure for a professional exhibition business appropriate to the artists and their works.

history

Leo Navratil and the character test method

The year 1954 marked the beginning of the creation of pictorial works in the former psychiatric clinic Heil- und Nursing Home Gugging: The psychiatrist Leo Navratil carried out special character tests with his patients for diagnostic purposes. He was inspired by the examination of the method "Personality projection in the drawing of a human figure: A method of personality investigation" by the American psychologist Karen Machover from 1949. Navratil was surprised by the creativity and artistic potential of some of his patients . The fact that the authors are almost exclusively male is due to the fact that Navratil worked in the male departments of the psychiatric hospital.

In 1965, Navratil published Schizophrenia and Art. A contribution to the psychology of design . With this book, illustrations of works and poetry from the clinic in Gugging were released to the outside world for the first time. The publication aroused the interest of other artists of the time, such as Peter Pongratz or Arnulf Rainer . They then went to the psychiatric clinic in Gugging to get to know the creators of the works from Navratil's publication, which were published under pseudonyms, and to see more works.

Jean Dubuffet and Art brut

In 1969 there was the first exchange of letters between Navratil and Jean Dubuffet , among other things the founder of the term Art brut . After Navratil had sent two etchings by Johann Hauser to Dubuffet as part of this correspondence , Dubuffet became interested in the artists in the asylum in Gugging. Subsequently, the works from Gugging were assigned and the categorization as Art brut by Dubuffet himself. From this point on, works from Gugging were increasingly received within this assignment, which is continuously and critically discussed in the scientific discourse.

The first exhibition of art from Gugging: "Pareidolia"

In 1970 the first exhibition of works of art from Gugging took place. The setting was the gallery next to St. Stephan in the city center of Vienna. The title of the exhibition was: “Pareidolia. Print from the Lower Austrian State Hospital for Psychiatry and Neurology Klosterneuburg. ”84 partially colored etchings were shown. The exhibition was a public success. The media interest and the number of visitors were high. 500 sheets of the graphics shown were sold. Among other things, works from Gugging were bought by the Albertina Vienna .

Foundation of the House of Artists and Art / Brut Center Gugging

At the beginning of the 1980s, the hospital in Gugging was restructured. This brought a decisive opportunity for Navratil and a group of artistically talented patients: in 1981, on the decisive initiative of the clinic director Alois Marksteiner , Navratil was able to found the “ Center for Art Psychotherapy ” or what would later become the House of Artists . 18 patients moved into the center and from this point on they had the opportunity to pursue their creative activities in their living area and receive special support.

In 1986, Johann Feilacher , from then on head of the house of artists and later founder of the Art / Brut Center Gugging and artistic director of the museum gugging , succeeded Navratil. In 1983, under Feilacher's initiative, the facade of the residential facility began to be painted. In 1986 he renamed the “Center for Art Psychotherapy” to House of Artists. With the renaming, Feilacher initiated both a content reorientation of the residential facility and the abolition of the patient status - people and artists were brought into focus.

In 1994 galerie gugging was founded as a sales gallery . From 1997 the renovation and conversion of the former children's home of the “Lower Austria State Insane Asylum Kierling Gugging” began in order to create gallery spaces as well as work and storage rooms. In 2006, the Art / Brut Center Gugging was finally opened in its current form in these premises .

Artist from Gugging

The best-known artists from the first generation of Gugging are the artists Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner , August Walla and the poet Ernst Herbeck .

The first generation of artists from Gugging were patients of the Gugging sanatorium at the time. The psychiatrist Leo Navratil discovered some of their artistic talent within the framework of the drawing test method he practiced in Gugging or was made aware of this as a result of his work. The almost exclusively male gender of the first generation of artists from Gugging can be traced back to the fact that Navratil worked in the men's departments of the psychiatric hospital.

Today, the works of first-generation and current artists from Gugging are presented in the context of changing exhibitions in the museum gugging or represented by the galerie gugging . Works from Gugging are also part of international private and public collections, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art , the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Setagaya Art Museum , Tokyo.

The following artists emerged from Gugging (selection):

Awards and honors

In 1990 the group of artists from Gugging was awarded the Oskar-Kokoschka Prize .

reception

Artists were fascinated by art from Gugging and are still looking for a creative approach to it today: Arnulf Rainer , Alfred Hrdlicka , Eduard Angeli , Peter Pongratz , Franz Ringel , Loys Egg, Friederike Mayröcker , Ernst Jandl , André Heller were interested in dealing with it early on.

Mediated by André Heller , David Bowie and Brian Eno visited the house of artists in Gugging in 1994 . The visit was documented by the photographer Christine de Grancy. The following year, in collaboration with Eno Bowie's album 1. Outside , which deals with human existence beyond the norm.

In 2015, the fashion designer Christopher Kane created a collection for which he was inspired primarily by the works of Johann Korec and Heinrich Reisenbauer on site in Gugging . The pre-fall collection resulting from this visit was presented for the first time in January 2017 in Kane's showroom in Paris.

Web links

Photos of artists from the Gugging Gallery by Silke Wernet

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plakolm-Forsthuber, Sabine: A perfect insane asylum. On the building history of the "Kierling-Gugging insane asylum" . In: Stadtgemeinde Klosterneuburg, Stadtarchiv / Stadtmuseum, in cooperation with the Institute for Art History, Building Research and Monument Preservation of the Vienna University of Technology, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. (Ed.): Klosterneuburg. History and culture; From the institution to the campus. History and architecture of the hospital in Maria Gugging. 1st edition. tape 3 . Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85028-489-9 .
  2. ↑ Schwarz, Lisa: "A tightrope walk to Gugging ..." Gugging art in the second generation. In: Diploma thesis, University Library University of Vienna. University Library Vienna, 2010, accessed on August 30, 2018 .
  3. ^ A b Navratil, Leo: The Gugging Method: Art in Psychiatry . 1st edition G. Fischer, Ulm 1998, ISBN 3-437-51036-3 , p. 366 .
  4. ↑ a b Machover, Karen: Personality projection in the drawing of a human figure (A method of personality investigation) . In: Harrower, Molly (Ed.): American Lecture Series . 2nd Edition. tape 25 . Charles C Thomas, Springfield Illinois USA 1949.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Leo Navratil: Gugging 1946–1986 / 2, The artists and their works. Brandstätter, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-85447-717-1 , p. 354-355 .
  6. ↑ Navratil, Leo: Schizophrenia and Art. A contribution to the psychology of design. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 1965.
  7. ↑ Bogaczyk-Vormayr, Malgorzata, 1979-, Neumaier, Otto, 1951-: "Outsider art": interdisciplinary perspectives of an art form. Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-50831-7 .
  8. ↑ Art Brut? Outsider Art? Retrieved September 19, 2018 .
  9. ^ Navratil, Leo: The artists from Gugging . [2. Ed.]. Medusa, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-85446-080-5 , p. 32 .
  10. ↑ a b Feilacher, Johann: Art from Gugging from 1970 to the present . In: Feilacher, Johann; Ansperger, Nina (Ed.): Brain feeling.! : Art from Gugging from 1970 to the present . Residenz Verlag, Salzburg - Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-7017-3450-4 , pp. 21-23 .
  11. ↑ Bowie's afternoon coffee in Gugging - derStandard.de. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Christopher Kane Pre-Fall 2017 Fashion Show. In: Vogue. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 18 '47.4 "  N , 16 ° 15' 29.9"  E