Art Brut Center Gugging

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Art Brut – literally “raw art" or "rough art" – is a label created by French painter Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture, often created by outsiders or people with no formal artistic training. This genre, and specifically the work of the artists of Gugging, has long since gained international attention. The Museum Gugging provides the so-called “Gugging Artists”, patients from the former psychiatric hospital at Maria Gugging, with bright, spacious exhibition rooms for presenting their art.

The works of this permanent collection are regularly rotated and combined with special exhibitions of other Austrian and international Art Brut representatives. Although the colourfully painted House of Artists, where the Gugging Artists live and work, can be viewed only from the outside, visitors nonetheless often encounter the artists, who often work on their projects outside on the museum grounds and sometimes passersby for cigarettes or a cup of coffee. While the Galerie Gugging sells original works by the exhibited artists, the studio gugging offers free use of the space and materials to the Gugging Artists as well as to other artistically interested people.