Artists of Gugging : Online Exclusive

Formerly a psychiatric hospital, Gugging’s genesis as Austria’s foremost cultural center dedicated to championing the field of art brut began in 1954 when one of its psychiatrists, Dr. Leo Navratil, started to employ a “draw-a-person” test as a diagnostic aid. Navratil took notice of the quality of the drawings that some of his patients produced, and this led to the publication of his book Schizophrenia and Art (1965), which explored his growing interest in the intersection of creativity and mental illness and became a hit amongst avant-garde painters such as Arnulf Rainer and Peter Pongratz. Shortly after, Jean Dubuffet, who in 1948 had coined the term art brut (“raw art”) to describe art created on the margins of mainstream culture, declared works by Gugging patients definitive examples of the movement.

Following the success of the first public exhibition of the artists of Gugging in 1970, Navratil set out to provide better living conditions patients with artistic inclinations. While such plan was met with contempt from the hospital union, Navratil persisted and eventually succeeded in establishing the Centre for Art and Psychotherapy in a vacant building nearby where his “artist-patients” could live and work full-time. In 1986, with the new director, Dr. Johann Feilacher at the helm, The Center for Art and Psychotherapy was renamed The House of Artists, a change that signified a new direction under which the artist-patients would simply be regarded as artists. Feilacher’s vision was to raise Gugging artists to the same level of esteem enjoyed by their modern and contemporary counterparts. His novel method of promoting the art, which included direct sales and institutional exhibitions, played a crucial role in Gugging's subsequent development into an essential force in the field of art brut. 

Today, Gugging boasts its own museum, a gallery, and an atelier (open to non-residents), where guest artists have found both inner peace in art making, as well as international notoriety.