The famous Swiss artist Jean Tinguely once said that children are more non-constrained, unprejudiced and they do not know what is considered as art (he obviously liked them as spectators better than adults). But what if the artists instead are non-constrained by any intellectual concept or idea of art? Do artists exist who are unrestrained and unprejudiced? In Gugging, 20 minutes outside of Vienna, I found twelve such artists. They live in a brightly painted house surrounded by trees on a little hill in the countryside and their art is called Art Brut, as it has no concept or no deeper intellectual meaning: it comes directly from their hearts. The reason for their unrestrained approach to art is that they live an unrestrained life as they are mentally handicapped and beyond constraints of ‘normal’ society. We visited their museum by the name of Gugging next to their house and chanced to meet a few of them. First we met John Garber. He is in his sixties and an exception among the artists: he keeps most of his detailed paintings for himself and hangs them up in his room. In order to display his art he replicated a corner of his room in the museum and he took some time to explain the paintings to us. John had exhibitions from New York to Tokyo and Berlin and is obviously proud about it. Next we came across Karl Vondal who tends to walk around with big drawings under his arm and talks in rapid sentences, only interrupted by roaring laughter. He led us to the workshop and unrolled a huge drawing with hundreds of well endowed blond women, some of them engaged in an intercourse. In the process he got very excited about my female companion and went into great lengths to explain every detail of the depicted ‘actions’ of the women. After he begged us for some cigarettes we left him to his drawings and had a drink with two other artists outside in the sun. The artists were particularly enthusiastic about my female companion (and they were quite frank with their admiration). The four artists we met struck us with their curiosity, their artistic expression and their unrestrained feelings. I felt that they are much closer to the true concept of art: art as a passionate form of expressing the human soul. In Gugging, art is fundamental, it is passionate and it is authentic. I loved it.
For more pictures, click here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/photos/vienna/index.html or visit the Gugging website here: www.gugging.org
Picture: The Gugging artist Karl Vondahl explaining his meandering and explicit work of art.
Picture: The Künstlerhaus, the house where about 12 art brut artists live (only men so far). 
Comments