| In the beginning, Art/Brut Center Gugging was a building full of interesting personalities, each with unique outstanding talents. They are Johann Hauser, August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner. Hauser—who died in 1996—has work presented around the world. He was a master of drawing in colored pencil, and his work was enthusiastically received by not only devotees of Art Brut, but according to critics also "overshadowed" works of the classical Modern in exhibitions with artists like Klee, Kokoschka and Schiele. Oswald Tschirtner, the maestro of the fine line, not only became known for his elongated depictions of the human form, but also perfected the idea of concentrating on a single theme as in Minimal Art. |
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When I first came to Gugging in 1983, Dr. Leo Navratil had been drawing with his talented patients for about 20 years. He had created a life with them and had started to raise public awareness for their art.
In the beginning, Art/Brut Center Gugging was a building full of interesting personalities, each with unique outstanding talents. They are Johann Hauser, August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner. Hauser—who died in 1996—has work presented around the world. He was a master of drawing in colored pencil, and his work was enthusiastically received by not only devotees of Art Brut, but according to critics also "overshadowed" works of the classical Modern in exhibitions with artists like Klee, Kokoschka and Schiele. Oswald Tschirtner, the maestro of the fine line, not only became known for his elongated depictions of the human form, but also perfected the idea of concentrating on a single theme as in Minimal Art. August Walla has constructed a universe of images, text, photos, Land Art, and objects.
In addition to these three there remain a number of important artists like Johann Garber, with his pedantically busy pen and ink drawings and his colorfully painted decoration of objects. Heinrich Reisenbauer invented his own form of seriographic depiction, in which individual components are not copied, but varied. The simplicity of his drawings come from the balance of his work as a whole. Franz Kernbeis’s works consist of archaic depictions of simple objects. Johann Korec combines anti-orthographic script with watercolor and ink drawing. Franz Kamlander loves animals: He captures their expressive qualities than draws realistic depictions. Johann Fischer fills his drawings with eccentric people, animals and objects, which he supplements with meticulously exact descriptions of the work. Arnold Schmidt, at the moment the youngest member of the group— he will soon be relieved of this position by a younger colleague—achieves a dynamic effect through his brushstroke. The newer artist Karl Vondal chooses couples as a theme in his work most; multiple assemblies about love fill large papers.
However, in 1983 it was a place where much work still needed to be done. Twenty years after Dr. Navratil resigned, Art/Brut had reached another milestone that made it highly unlikely that the project would fade from memory. A museum dedicated to the Gugging Artists, is not only a milestone for Gugging itself, but for Austrian art history and for Art/Brut in general. The museum is a place where Art/Brut can intersect with all other artistic styles as well as complement them in showing that it measures up to them. The “Art/Brut Center” does not want to become a second Collection de l’Art Brut, like the one in Lausanne, instead a place where artists can be actively engaged with younger as well as older talents from around the world. The museum is a forum for discussion and discourse that wants to present starkly opposed works and increase their acceptance in the public eye.
From the beginning, I considered the “Center for Art-Psychotherapy” as a place inhabited primarily by artists. That is why it was given the name “House of Artists” in 1986. Exhibitions and publications raised the artists’ profile on an international scale. We maintain numerous connections with private galleries in many cities worldwide from Rosa Esman, Phyllis Kind, St. Etienne Gallery in New York, and Judy Saslow in Chicago.
As the artists started using larger formats and producing an increasing amount of graphic art and paintings, space became more and more restricted. August Walla even had to resort to the coal cellar to paint his three-by-six meter canvases.
A non-profit development association was founded, which was able to employ temporary workers on a permanent basis. The artists were ultimately to attain a better position in society. It took three years to draft and revise a contract to found a limited commercial partnership that would make the artists co-owners of a private company and turn them into independent economic agents. This was the cornerstone for their own non-subsidized gallery.
When rooms in the adjacent building became available, we had a chance to expand and at least acquire storage space. Two years later, the entire building became available. It was clear that we had to seize this opportunity. The building was huge, providing us with 3,500 square meters of space. Resources were, however, always scarce.
The artists’ work became increasingly popular once we were able to present it better in this new space. The building in which the gallery was housed lay mostly idle. Of course, it was tempting to find a targeted use for its rooms. The logical next step was to establish a museum for Gugging Artists in which their work could be shown to a wide international public. The big and rather conservative museums still do not show Art Brut because many undeserving works bear this label. Our new museum is meant to serve as a seal of quality for all the artists it represents.
In the mid to late 1990s, we were not able to raise the necessary funds to renovate the future museum. That is why we started reconstruction with a team of unemployed people. The Gugging Artists immediately took possession of their new space and started using their studios. Sometimes, they would just drop in for a chat and use the new space to engage in conversation.
The museum’s architecture is designed to live up to high aesthetic and practical standards without damaging the building’s substance. The “Private Foundation of Gugging Artists” came into being three years ago and presently includes many hundred works donated by the artists. Additional private donations brought the number of works in the collection up to 600 originals and etchings and will reach the first thousand soon. I am sure that many people will follow this example, with collectors entrusting their treasures to our museum.
