Arnulf Rainer & Art Brut

Arnulf Rainer is among the most significant artists of the present day. One of his most important sources of inspiration was Art Brut, which he became aware of during the postwar period through his exploration of Surrealism.

The term Art Brut (“raw art”) was coined in 1945 by Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985), who used it to refer to art outside of established norms, such as art produced by children or people with mental illnesses. “Raw” or “brut” in this context indicates art untouched by cultural influences.

In addition to Surrealism, it was the discovery of the artists at Gugging Psychiatric Hospital that fueled Rainer’s interest in Art Brut. Through the 1965 book Schizophrenie und Kunst (Schizophrenia and art) by Leo Navratil, the founder of the Gugging Center for Art-Psychotherapy, Rainer came into contact with the artists there. This encounter developed into a long-term involvement with these artists and their art—in Rainer’s collecting activity as well as in his artistic work.

In the 1970s, for example, he created his well-known Art Brut homages, in which he overpainted pictures by artists such as Johann Hauser, Jean Dubuffet, and Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern—not to alter them but in order to enter into an artistic dialogue with them. Rainer collaborated directly with other artists in 1984 in three drawings: two with Fritz Koller and one with Johann Hauser. This was followed in 1994 by an extensive project including fifty-eight overpaintings, created together with eight Gugging artists.

The present exhibition shows works by Arnulf Rainer, Johann Garber, Johann Hauser, Margarethe Held, Rudolf Horacek, Fritz Koller, Hans Krüsi, Rudolf Liemberger, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Volkmar Schulz-Rumpold, Sava Sekulić, Oswald Tschirtner, August Walla, and Adolf Wölfli, as well as works created by Rainer together with Koller and Hauser.

In addition to the Zambo Collection, which constitutes the focal point of the exhibition, and private loans, this show for the first time features a large group of works from the Navratil Collection, which Leo Navratil presented to the State Collections of Lower Austrian in the form of a premortal bequest.

Exhibition duration:
October 18, 2025 – October 4, 2026

Nikolaus Kratzer, Head of the Art Collection of the State of Lower Austria, and art collector Helmut Zambo.

• OPENING on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at 11:00 AM
• OPEN HOUSE on Saturday, October 18, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Arnulf Rainer & Art Brut

With essays by Nikolaus Kratzer on Rainer’s work and Art Brut, an article by Arnulf Rainer on the artist Johann Hauser, information on the artists featured in the exhibition, and an extensive picture section with over 100 works.

Edited by Helmut Zambo and Nikolaus Kratzer

Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne
In German and English, 192 pages
Price: € 29.90
Available at the Museum Shop

The artist's multifaceted oeuvre has been presented in numerous exhibitions since the opening of the Arnulf Rainer Museum in autumn 2009. In addition to monographic exhibitions, Rainer's significance for contemporary art is also explored through juxtapositions with artists such as Georg Baselitz, Mario Merz, and Damien Hirst.