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August Walla was born in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, Austria. Following his father’s death the child was raised by his grandmother and mother. When, at the age of 16, he threatened to kill himself and set fire to his house, he was confined to a psychiatric establishment. When he was released, he lived with his mother, who looked after him carefully.
In 1970, he was admitted to the psychiatric hospital at Maria Gugging, Austria. Sixteen years later he became an inmate of the Haus der Künstler (House of Artists), a place of residence and creation connected to the hospital.
Drawing and writing are intimately interwoven in his compositions, which gather together gods, demons, saints, prophets and miracle-workers, as well as a number of imaginary deities. Walla was fascinated by the materiality of words and by their plastic, or three-dimensional quality as well as by symbols, and collected foreign-language dictionaries, from which he drew terms, and invented personal idioms by combining different words.
Walla also painted on the walls and furnishings of his room, on his belongings, and on the walls of both the hospital where he lived and the neighbouring houses. In addition, he did chalk drawings on the roadway. His works were talismans to him against dangers—particularly against spirits, humans and death.
Introduction to an œuvre: August Walla, by the Collection de l'Art Brut guide Colin Pahlisch.
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11 items available
Écriture en délire
Écriture en délire, 18 x 24 cm, 55 color ill., 128 pp. Publisher 5 Continents / Collection de l’Art Brut, Milan/Lausanne, 2004. In French.
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Bonhomme d'Art Brut
Bonhomme d'Art Brut, Paris, Editions Thierry Magnier, 2015,24 x 20 cm, 28 pages.
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The Art Brut Fascicle N°12
The Art Brut Fascicle N°12, 18 x 24 cm, 150 ill. black/white or color, about 160 pp. Since 1964 to 2018. In French. One fascicle CHF 30.-
Price Complete collection, 25 fascicles (N°2 - N°26) : CHF 720.-
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The Outlanders. Forging Ahead With Art Brut (english version)
The Outlanders. Forging Ahead With Art Brut, 24 X 32 cm, 200 b/w photographies, 240 pp. Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, 2000.
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Écrire en dessinant. Quand la langue cherche son autre (édition française)
Through the work of nearly a hundred contemporary artists and Art Brut personalities, the exhibition Scrivere Disegnando and the catalogue Ecrire en dessinant explore writing’s shadow side. A terra incognita where arabesques, reiterated marks, scribblings, compulsive writings produce “meaning” in a field outside of language by becoming axioms of the unspeakable, of what is unfathomable in the soul as well as in language.
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Writing by Drawing. when Language Seeks Its Other (English version)
Through the work of nearly a hundred contemporary artists and Art Brut personalities, the exhibition Scrivere Disegnando and the catalogue Writing by Drawing explore writing’s shadow side. A terra incognita where arabesques, reiterated marks, scribblings, compulsive writings produce “meaning” in a field outside of language by becoming axioms of the unspeakable, of what is unfathomable in the soul as well as in language.
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Pathologie du cadre
Michel Thévoz, Pathologie du cadre, préface de Sarah Lombardi, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 2020, 160 pages.
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Croyances (french version)
Emmanuel Grimaud, Sarah Lombardi and Anic Zanzi, Croyances, Lausanne/ Milan, Collection de l’Art Brut/ 5 Continents Editions, 2021,« Art Brut, la collection », under the direction of Sarah Lombardi,168 pages, more than 100 color plates, available in french or in english..
Beliefs (english version)
Emmanuel Grimaud, Sarah Lombardi and Anic Zanzi, Beliefs, Lausanne/ Milan, Collectionde l’Art Brut/ 5 Continents Editions, 2021, « Art Brut, la collection », under the direction of Sarah Lombardi, 168 pages, over 100 color plates, available in French or English.
August Walla (colouring poster)
The Outlanders. Forging Ahead With Art Brut (german version)
The Outlanders. Forging Ahead With Art Brut, 24 X 32 cm, 200 b/w photographies, 240 pp. Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, 2000.
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Permanent exhibition
The museum constantly displays part of its collection, including works by major creators such as Aloïse Corbaz, Augustin Lesage, Marguerite Sirvins, and Auguste Walla. The Art Brut pieces are created by self-taught artists—solitary individuals living on the margins of society, patients of psychiatric hospitals—who produce work apart from tradition and artistic trends, without concern for public criticism or the gaze of others.
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Every day from 10 am to 8 pm (except Tuesday)
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