Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 10:00 am EXHIBITION OPENING: Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 7:00 pm DURATION: October 25, 2018 March 10, 2019

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1 Philipp Schöpke, untitled, 1998 Art Brut KG PRESS RELEASE: philipp schöpke.! PRESS TOUR: Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 10:00 am EXHIBITION OPENING: Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 7:00 pm DURATION: October 25, 2018 March 10, 2019

2 Contents philipp schöpke.!... 2 PROGRAMME FOR THE EXHIBITION philipp schöpke.! :... 7 IMAGE MATERIAL:... 7 CATALOGUE:... 7 PRESS CONTACT:... 7 SPONSORS AND MEDIA PARTNERS... 8

3 philipp schöpke.! The name Philipp Schöpke is only known by few art enthusiasts. Yet his enigmatic and fascinating oeuvre counts, without doubt, amongst the most interesting work created in Gugging. The fate of this creative mind, who died in 1998 at the age of 76, is exemplary for all those Art Brut artists whose work went unheeded because of their position on the margins of society. At an early stage curator Johann Feilacher recognized the extraordinary dimensions of Schöpke s artistic work and supported his potential, thereby laying the foundations for a re-evaluation of his work. In the exhibition philipp schöpke.! museum gugging presents an extensive compilation of the artist s oeuvre for the first time to celebrate his rediscovery. At first glance the work of Gugging artist Philipp Schöpke (* , Erlach, Lower Austria; , Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria) is not easily accessible. Many of his drawings have something disquieting about them: They are deeply human and approachable yet have a bizarre and outlandish edge at the same time and they Philipp Schöpke, Mizi, 1993 Art Brut KG polarise. The curator of the show and long-time companion of Schöpke s creative path comments the works of the artist: The spectator is left alone. He or she has to resort to their own imaginations and, moreover, is even more exposed to his or her prejudices towards people with a psychiatric background than otherwise in the art world. What remains is the subjective perception of the drawing, characterized primarily by negative associations with unknown ugly figures and the infinite rows of teeth in their mouths.

4 Philipp Schöpke, untitled, 1995 Art Brut KG He has created a small but distinctive body of work, which in my opinion hasn t lost any of its fascination in four decades, rather it has always ranked amongst the most important in Art Brut and has its place in fine arts as well. (Johann Feilacher) For curator Feilacher, the fascination triggered by Schöpke s drawings resides in their elusive strangeness. There are no associations or anchor points in art history whatsoever that provide an explanation for the peculiarity displayed. This also makes it difficult to apply iconographic methods of motif or style identification.

5 Reception The art historian Maria Höger has researched Phillip Schöpke s biography and compiled an instructive contribution to the exhibition catalogue. For her, Schöpke was unappreciated and misunderstood all his life both as a person and as an artist. Höger: It was a rocky road for Schöpke to attain recognition as an artist in his lifetime and thereafter and it still is for a just categorisation in art history. Schöpke s encounter with psychiatrist Leo Navratil and his drawing test method led him to drawing and later to become an inhabitant of the House of Artists. But unlike the works of other Gugging Artists none of Schöpke s drawings made it into Navratil s first publication in 1965, Schizophrenia and Art, on the topic of psychiatry and art. A decisive factor for the new reception of Schöpke s oeuvre was Michel Thévoz purchase of drawings for the Collection de l Art Brut in Lausanne. In the twelfth edition of Fascicule de l Art Brut from 1983, which was dedicated to Gugging at the time still copublished by Art Brut collector Jean Dubuffet personally Schöpke s works were published directly after the pages of Johann Hauser, thereby placing the artist in a prominent spotlight before August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner. Such a ranking never happened before. The year 1983 also marked his first solo exhibition at Galerie Heike Curtze in Vienna. But Philipp Schöpke, Woman 29 Y Man 39 Y, 1974 Art Brut KG in this context Schöpke was met yet again with a lack of understanding: In contrast to the exhibition in the year before, which was dedicated to artist Johann Garber and completely sold out, not one of Schöpke s works found a buyer. In 1984 the Collection de l Art Brut organised an exhibition titled Gugging. One of Schöpke s Fräulein in bright orange was selected as the powerful poster motif. Contrary to the poor recognition of Schöpke s

6 work in Austria in the previous years, the French press showed great interest. His drawings were highlighted directly beside those of Johann Hauser. A decisive turn for Schöpke s recognition in the group of the Gugging Artists and also in the accompanying external perception of his creations came with Johann Feilacher, who succeeded Navratil in 1986 and in the following years became the director of today s House of Artists and the artistic director of museum gugging. Feilacher nurtured Schöpke s artistic potential and laid the foundation for the repositioning and evaluation of his oeuvre. Information from the catalogue Philipp Schöpke, Figure, 1997 Art Brut KG contributions by Johann Feilacher and Maria Höger. philipp schöpke.! Exhibition from October 25, 2018 in museum gugging

7 PROGRAM FOR THE EXHIBITION philipp schöpke.! : SUN, , 2:00 3:00 pm With Maria Höger THU, , 2:30 4:30 pm SUN, , 3:00 4:00 pm Public Guided Tour: Personal Worlds of Philipp Schöpke. Gugging Gugelhupf: Philipp Schöpke. With Katja Brandes Public Guided Tour on Philipp Schöpke. With Maria Höger IMAGE MATERIAL: CATALOGUE: editors: Johann Feilacher, Maria Höger: philipp schöpke, bound, 190 images in black/white and colour, 176 pages, 253 x 300 mm,, ISBN German-English, publisher: Residenz, Vienna- Salzburg, 2018, 35. PRESS CONTACT: Mag. a Edith Wildmann edith.wildmann@gugging.at, mobile: 0664/

8 SPONSOR/INNEN UND MEDIENPARTNER/INNEN MedienpartnerInnen: