Art/Brut Center Gugging

The Art/Brut Center Gugging stands on the site of the former Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic on the edge of Vienna. The clinic opened in 1889 in the suburb of Maria Gugging, part of Klosterneuburg. During the Nazi era the clinic became a killing site where about 400 patients were murdered by poisoning, electric shock and lethal injection. Historian Herwig Czech has described Gugging as the scene of some of the most barbarous medical crimes in Austria. Between 1940 and 1941, 675 patients were taken to Hartheim Killing Facility and gassed, including 116 children and teenagers.

In the late 1950s psychiatrist Leo Navratil began asking patients to make drawings for diagnosis. He soon recognised artistic talent among them, a finding confirmed by French artist Jean Dubuffet who coined the term Art Brut. Navratil published his first book on schizophrenia and art in 1965. In 1970 the first exhibition of Gugging Artists took place in a Vienna gallery. The centre later became a model for psychiatric reform through art therapy.

Today the Art/Brut Center Gugging includes the House of Artists, a museum, a gallery and a public studio. The House of Artists was founded in 1981 by Navratil and later led by Johann Feilacher. The museum displays works by Gugging artists and hosts travelling Art Brut exhibitions featuring artists such as Martin Ramirez and Adolf Wölfli. The public studio is open to all but mainly used by people receiving psychiatric treatment. In 1994 David Bowie and Brian Eno visited the clinic, and their collaboration was influenced by the materials and methods used by the artists there.