June 6 – October 6, 2024
View at: galeriegugging.com
The galerie gugging is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an anniversary exhibition. Rarities, classics and masterpieces by over 40 artists await you in an exquisite selection that leaves nothing to be desired. A celebration of the work of the Gugging Artists and their national and international colleagues.
For 30 years now, the galerie gugging has been exhibiting works by the Gugging Artists and, since 2009, also by their international artist colleagues, with the aim of making their work more visible in the context of contemporary art and promoting previously unknown artists.
“No art brut exhibition in the world today can abstain from the Gugging Artists and they can also be found in contemporary exhibitions such as the current one at the ALBERTINA modern,” says gallery director Nina Katschnig, who has been managing the galerie gugging for 27 years. There is no question that the Gugging Artists enjoy great international recognition today, are guests at renowned art fairs worldwide, and are represented in partner galleries from Tokyo to Paris and New York. Thanks to increasing digitalisation, the global appeal of art from Gugging has become even greater in recent years.
Oswald Tschirtner, INRI, 1985. Edding marker, 35.3 x 24.8 in. / 89.8 x 63.1 cm © Privatstifuntung – Künstler aus Gugging
“The special thing about this place is that the Gugging Artists live here. This is their gallery, they are our bosses. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have been here for a long time,” says Nina Katschnig, visibly moved. Initially housed in a small room in the House of Artists, the galerie gugging is now located on the first floor of the Art Brut Center Gugging. On the same floor, the artists pursue their creative impulses in the atelier gugging on weekdays, as well as in Nina Katschnig’s studio office. The second floor is now home to the museum gugging.
In recent years, new artists such as Christa Wiener and Leopold Strobl have joined the galerie gugging via the atelier gugging, where not only the Gugging Artists are active as artists. The Mistelbach-born Leopold Strobl has now even been purchased by the MoMA in New York for its collection and is represented this year at the 60th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. A success story made in Gugging!
Oswald Tschirtner is one of the most famous Gugging Artists and – in comparison – the French Artist Margot is featured, beside many other artworks and rarities.
Anna Zemánková, Untitled, 1975. Acrylic, collage, ink, coloured pencil, graphite, ballpoint pen, 24.6 x 34.6 in. / 62.5 x 88 cm. Courtesy christian berst art brut, Paris
Through courageous, creative and, above all, new, innovative ideas, the galerie gugging has always tried to break new ground in order to make the Gugging Artists more visible. This is how the curated by series was launched, which started in 2017 for the first time with curated by Johann Garber, and will enter its fourth round this fall with curated by Sara Kay after Daniel Spoerri and Scottish fashion designer Christopher Kane. Here, personalities are given the opportunity to curate their own exhibition with the Gugging Artists, with the intention of crossing the usual boundaries. Kay already exhibited the Gugging Artists alongside Pablo Picasso in a New York gallery years ago, which impressively demonstrates the extent to which the Gugging Artists are already established and integrated in an international context.
Leopold Strobl, Untitled, 2022. Pencil, coloured pencils on newsprint, mounted on paper, 3.7 x 5.7 in. / 9.5 x 14.6 cm. Courtesy galerie gugging
The special edition concert series, led by music insider and label owner Michael Martinek, provides further horizon-expanding impulses, and guarantees performances of a special kind at regular intervals. Acting luminary Klaus Maria Brandauer, for example, has already read selected David Bowie song lyrics inspired by Bowie’s visits to Gugging in 1994 for research purposes for his Outside album at the time. Artists such as Lukas Lauermann and Kava have also composed music especially for the Gugging Artists, and Peter Turrini has created an exciting album on which he interprets selected letters by August Walla.
Margot, My ass is not my face, n.d. Mixed media, 19.6 x 15.6 in. / 49.7 x 39.7 cm. Courtesy galerie gugging
“The title ERRINNERUNGEN BEGEBNISSE VORKOMMNISSE is borrowed from a work by the Gugging Artist August Walla, as we have always been inspired by our artists. For our anniversary exhibition, we have brought together many things that we have encountered over the last 30 years and that we have fond memories of,” explains gallery director and curator Nina Katschnig.
There are three special objects by August Walla to marvel at: a stovepipe, a watering can, and a letterbox. But there are also rare works by the Gugging Artists such as Barbara Demlczuk, a remarkable overdrawing of a Niki Lauda photo by Anton Dobay, Alois Fischbach, Franz Gableck, Emil Novy, Johann Scheiböck, Philipp Schöpke and, of course, classics such as Johann Hauser and Oswald Tschirtner alongside August Walla. The new generation of the Gugging Artists will be represented by works by Laila Bachtiar, Manuel Griebler, Helmut Hladisch, Arnold Schmidt, Günther Schützenhöfer, and Jürgen Tauscher, among others. National colleagues include Hannes Lehner, who has created a remarkable car object especially for the 30th anniversary exhibition, Basel Al-Bazzaz, Julia Hanzl, and Lejo. International works by Ida Buchmann, Margot, Laura Craig McNellis, Misleidys Castillo Pedroso, Simone Pellegrini, Michel Nedjar, Anna Zemánková, and the Art Brut superstars William Hawkins and Martín Ramírez will also be on display. All in all, you can look forward to a best of over 40 exciting artists.
