Изложба „Арт брут. Радови из колекције Инфелд” отворена је 15. децембра у Салону Ото Бихаљи-Мерин у Музеју наивне и маргиналне уметности у Београду.

Изложбу је свечано отворио амбасадор Аустрије у Београду Кристијан Ебнер, а јавности су се обратили – Зденка Инфелд, директорка Томастик Инфелд ГмбХ, др Јорданка Вајс, кустоскиња Инфелд колекције, као и др Ивана Башичевић Антић, директорка МНМУ.

Изложба у Музеју наивне и маргиналне уметности у Србији приказаће, у периоду од децембра 2023. до маја 2024. око 100 дела арт брут уметности из колекције ове бечке породице индустријалаца.

The first part of the exhibition will be opened on December 16 in Belgrade, in the Salon Oto Bihalji-Merin Museum of Naive and Marginal Art (Nemanjina 3), and visitors must be notified the day before via the e-mail address info@mnmu. The salon is open every working day from 9 am to 8 pm, and on Saturdays from 12 pm to 6 pm. The exhibition will be open from January 18 in the Gallery of the Museum of Naive and Marginal Art in Jagodina.

The exhibition includes works from the fifties of the 20th century by internationally known greats such as Scottie Wilson, Ilija Bosilj and Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, through the works of the artist from Guging near Vienna Oswald Chirtner Tschirtner, August Walla, Johann Hauser, Heinrich Reisenbauer, Fritz Koller and all the way to the art culturel of great Austrian painters such as Arnulf Rainer and Peter Pongratz, who sought and found inspiration in art but.

The beginning of the "Infeld" Collection, which today is one of the largest art collections in Austria, was made by the Viennese school of fantastic realism close to surrealism. After an exhibition in 1965, Peter Infeld felt the need to collect paintings and meet their creators personally: "I liked the meticulous ways of painting, returning to the techniques of the old masters, engaging in psychoanalysis." That confusion of different ideas, which were foreign to me, encouraged me to buy. From the very beginning, a cordial relationship developed with the painters, with people who unfailingly followed their own path... I wanted to provide assurance regarding their quality. Wherever that painter goes, I will follow him."

Personal acquaintance with the painters of Viennese fantasy was followed by a permanent, passionate engagement with their art and decades of friendship with Ernst Fuchs, Anton Lehmden, Arik Bauer, Wolfgang Hutter and Rudolf Hausner. Regular visits to exhibitions and studios enabled Viennese string makers to follow the creative path of these artists.

Peter Infeld, who was a successful businessman all over the world, collected not only Viennese fantasy painters, but also constantly discovered new artists. In this way, he managed to form a collection of a wide spectrum. In addition to the Vienna School of the fantastic realism, the focus of the collection was naive art, pop art, paintings for Buddhist meditations from Tibet (so-called tangka) and art brut.

Peter Infeld writes: "The wide spectrum of contemporary art was chosen, in turn, based on the personal sensibility of the artist and his way of creating." From this understanding of collecting comes a completely personal affinity and emotional relationship to the work of art."

The works of art brut artists from Guging, near Vienna, with whom the Infeld family is connected by decades of friendship, are no exception. Margareta and Peter Infeld tried to maintain personal contact with the artists and visited them often. "The great old lady" Infeld could not be deterred even by the great physical effort of constant trips to Guging for the selection of the works of local artists, which were determined by the proximity of their creators," recalls prof. Johann Feilacher (Johann Feilacher), longtime director of the Guging Art Brut Center. For him, these "works are not just pictures created anytime and anywhere, but are witnesses to a personal relationship between the Infeld family and the artists." This relationship can be read from numerous works and makes the "Infeld" Collection unique.

Three works by one of the most famous Austrian artists, Arnulf Reiner, are part of this exhibition. They were created as part of visits to Guging, which began in the mid-sixties of the 20th century, and occupy a special place. On them, the artist established direct contact with Arnold Schmidt and Johann Hauser, painting over their works in 1994.