August Walla

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August Walla (born June 22, 1936 in Klosterneuburg ; † July 7, 2001 in Maria Gugging ) was an Austrian visual artist .

From 1983 Walla lived in what is now the House of Artists in Gugging, currently part of the Art / Brut Center Gugging .

Along with Johann Hauser and Oswald Tschirtner, he is one of the most prominent artistic positions from Gugging. Walla's oeuvre is received primarily under the Art Brut categorization , which is continuously and critically discussed in the art-historical discourse.

Life and artistic career

Walla grew up as an only child with his mother and grandmother. His mother dressed and raised him as a girl to save him a later soldier's fate. Walla later stated that he was a "Nazi girl" who had been operated upon during the Soviet occupation to become a "Communist double boy". In his works, female figures are often marked with a swastika, while male figures are marked with a hammer and sickle.

He developed normally until he was nine years old. He went to the special school. After that, no apprenticeship or job could be found for him. At the age of 16 he received inpatient psychiatric treatment for the first time, in which he remained until he was 20 years old. 16 years later, when his mother fell ill, he was sent back to the psychiatric hospital.

Walla worked as an artist from a very early age, and records of his creative activities can already be found during his school days. He dealt with numerous artistic media - as a draftsman, painter, writer and photographer. In his art he appropriated his surroundings by painting invented and existing symbols as well as god-like beings on objects (also on houses or trees). Figures and symbols can be found in all of his works. In doing so, he created a self-contained artistic cosmos with a complex mythology.

August Walla lived from 1983 in the House of Artists of the Lower Austrian Provincial Nerve Clinic Gugging in Maria Gugging.

In the artist's house , Walla painted the walls of the room that he initially shared with his mother. Walla created mighty murals of his private mythology in this room, which extend from the floor to the entire ceiling of the room. Today this room can be viewed as a museum room of the Art / Brut Center Gugging .

reception

1986 August Walla painted a circus wagon for André Heller's art project " Luna Luna ". Other contributors included Keith Haring , Georg Baselitz , Jean Michel Basquiat and Salvador Dali .

The renowned German punk band EA80 refers to Walla's work in the piece Gugging of their 1992 album Schauspiele .

In 2008 the electronic musicians Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Kava Fabrique Records released The Gugging Album, a musical homage to August Walla and other renowned artists from Gugging, which were premiered as part of the new art and music festival "Gugging Irritations".

In autumn 2012 the Viennese label Fabrique Records published an audio book in collaboration with Peter Turrini and with selected texts and letters from Walla.

The German artist Jonathan Meese repeatedly refers directly or indirectly to August Walla's work.

Awards

Exhibitions

literature

  • Martina Weinhart, Max Hollein: Weltenwandler - the art of outsiders . Hatje-Cantz, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2686-3 .
  • Silvie Aigner, Johann Feilacher, Nina Katschnig, Gerhard Roth, Gisela Steinlechner, Helmut Zambo, Margit Zuckriegl: august walla.! end of space . Ed .: Johann Feilacher. Residence, St. Pölten 2012, ISBN 978-3-7017-3275-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Baumann: Art Brut? Outsider Art? Figure of thought and assertion. In: artlog.net. kunstbulletin, 2001, accessed on March 15, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Michaela Knapp: Walla.! Walla.! In: trend.at , March 26, 2012.
  3. ↑ Barbara Mader: Walla: Piggy pink was his favorite color . In: Kurier.at , October 8, 2012.
  4. ^ Gerhard Roth : Portraits. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012.
  5. ^ Gérard A. Schreiner: Outsiders. An exhibition of art brut. Kunsthaus St. Alban, Basel 1988, p. 179.
  6. ↑ Leo Navratil : BEJHOCTPKOHEU AMOR HNKTÖ NOXÄAJN CJNÄTBCR . In: Protocols , 73/2, pp. 155f.
  7. ↑ a b c Nina Ansperger: August Walla . In: Nina Ansperger, Johann Feilacher (Ed.): Brain feeling.! art from gugging from 1970 to the present . 1st edition. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-7017-3450-4 .
  8. ↑ Art Brut Center Gugging Interfaces. Retrieved January 13, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Sandra Danicke: Keeping the demon in check. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. September 23, 2010, accessed March 20, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Walla, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Klosterneuburg
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 2001
Place of death Maria Gugging