In the early twentieth century, in the course of the modern art’s search for the “very early origins” of art, so-called “outsider art” was discovered. At the same time, psychiatrists who hoped to be able to use works of psychiatric patients for diagnostic purposes began actively collecting for the first time on a large scale. Along these lines, the art historian and physician Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), received a commission from the Heidelberger hospital in 1919 to extend the small educational collection of the institute and to find methods that would help to gain insides into the type of the patients’ illness using their creative works. However, Prinzhorn rejected taking a purely clinical psychiatric approach to the works. Instead, he set the works into an art-theoretical context and thereby brought the aesthetic beauty of the until-then marginalized “mad art” into focus for the first time—a pioneering achievement.

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Part 3

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In 1922, Prinzhorn published the book, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, in which he documented and interpreted a large part of the collection, drawing parallels to other forms of artistic patterns and contemporary art. While his colleagues mostly rejected the book, it was enthusiastically received by the modern art world. It inspired artists such as Max Ernst, Alfred Kubin, and Pablo Picasso, and had a substantial influence on twentieth-century art theory and reception, which is reflected in—not least of all—today’s occupation with “state-bound art” and “outsider art“. more »

There has been substantial evidence for the theory, according to the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, that it is far less important for humans to know who they are, than where they are. The persistent ignorance regarding one’s place of existence is one of the causes for what newer philosophy calls oblivion of being.

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The inquiry after the “where” and the placing of one’s person and works represent central aspects of Wilhelm Scherübl’s work. His work realizes itself in the examination of his locations of residence and life, and in the integration of the respective condition of the places and resources which he finds there. more »

What would a virtual world be like without computers? The artist Johannes Deutsch tries to make the answers to this question tangible through his art project, “The Invisible Garden”. Located in the outdoor park area of the Museum Stift Admont, the interactive garden world of the media artist has been growing for two years as part of the museum’s “Made for Admont” series, and offers a feast of feeling, smelling, and hearing experiences to the visitors of the museum.

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The idea for the garden developed at a time when the artist was planning an interactive television world for the West German Broadcasting Corporation. Johannes Deutsch approached this project with the structure of a new world and the possibilities of its development in mind. He is fascinated by the question of how we derive our conception of the world on the basis of perception, sense, and knowledge processing, not only within the virtual realm, but also in the realm of our life that we regard as material. more »

The border between nature and culture is a tectonic faultline of human self-understanding. For example, when humanism seeks to tame the animal instinct in people, this can be understood as a tectonically preventive measure on the level of cultural history. When humans dabble in creation regarding nature, the foundations of both sides sometimes clash. The resulting tremor can then be so large that it raises a mountain of questions, which are often so disturbing that they force us to reinvestigate the notion of being human.

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The exhibition, “Nature - Creation is not finished!”, at the Monastery of Admont, looks at the boundaries and dissolution of boundaries between nature and culture. However, the artistic directions of the exhibition are not limited to earthquake faultlines. Rather than becoming fixed on the precariousness of the boundary, a multiplicity of different presentations of nature becomes evident. The artistic handling of creation is more playful. more »

In the Austrian Alps, a modern private museum was set up between Vienna, Linz, Graz, and Salzburg in 2003, after five years of construction. Within a few years, it was awarded the Austrian Museum Prize for its innovative design and in recognition of the unusual dedication of its private owners to the preservation, presentation, and promotion of art.

According to the director of the collection, Michael Braunsteiner, the owners of the museum demonstrate a style that is “absolutely relaxed and somehow cooler”. This is surprising considering that the owners are not newly-rich young idealists, but the monks from the Benedictine Admont Monastery, which dates back over 1000 years, and whose monks are aged over fifty years old on average.

The developing years of the museum. Part 1

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Developing the contemporary art collection. Part 2

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Since the renovation, the Benedictine monastery does not only house the newly reconstructed, largest monastery library in the world, but also a museum complex extending over several floors, which includes an art-historical and natural history museum, as well its own permanent collection of contemporary art and exterior monastery spaces used for art installations.

In 1998, Michael Braunsteiner was assigned to lead the transformation of the museum Stift Admont and to curate the development of the contemporary art collection. CastYourArt spoke with him about the developing years of the museum, especially in regard to the arrangement and layout of the contemporary art collection. (wh/jn)