Opening: Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 7pm

With the exhibition “herrera & dubuffet.! a spark of light in this world,” the museum gugging is once again focusing on the work of a woman artist in 2025. Previously shown in 2024 at the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne (Switzerland), this retrospective of the work of the Uruguayan artist Magalí Herrera (1914–1992) is being presented in a German-speaking area for the first time. Herrera engaged in a fascinating correspondence with Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985), who coined the term Art Brut, and her richly detailed pictures have found their way into the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Herrera worked to the point of exhaustion in creating metaphorical universes made up of dots and short lines. In one of his letters to Herrera, Dubuffet writes admiringly: “My dear friend Magalí Herrera, you feel a desire to — as you write — be a spark of light in this world, and that is precisely what you are.”

This exhibition curated by Pascale Jeanneret presents over 80 works covering the entire career of the Uruguayan artist. It also shows a selection of materials from her personal archive, including a series of compelling letters from Herrera’s correspondence with Dubuffet. Herrera was staying in Paris in 1967 and 1968 when she discovered Art Brut and began corresponding with Dubuffet. These letters helped her to find new meaning in her work as an artist. Herrera completely abandoned herself to her fantasy during the creative process, producing works that reflect a kind of inner cosmogony. She used the same medium for every one of her pictures: black or white India ink and often gouache on white, black or colored paper. Using extremely precise Chinese calligraphy brushes, she created works of extraordinary artistic quality.

The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to discover Herrera’s inimitable artistic oeuvre in the context of the letters she exchanged with Dubuffet.

Curated by Pascale Jeanneret, curator at the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne (Switzerland)