Johann Fischer (Austrian, 1919–2008)

2000, photo courtesy of Museum Gugging

Johann Fischer was born in Kirchberg am Wagram, Austria, in a farming family of seven children. He was trained as a baker but was recruited into the German army in 1940 and later captured by American troops. Following his release in 1946, he returned to work on his family’s farm, but suffering from hallucinations, he began to receive psychiatric treatment; in 1961 he was committed to the Klosterneuburg Hospital in Maria Gugging near Vienna. In 1981, after years of working with residents and their art, psychiatrist Leo Navratil opened the Haus der Künstler (House of Artists) on the Klosterneuberg Hospital campus. The group of residents, including Fischer, are collectively referred to as the Gugging artists and their work was initially shown in Vienna, before entering wider collections internationally.

Fischer’s early works depict animals and figures primarily in brown, black, and yellow crayon and colored pencil. From there, Fischer’s drawings began including a wider range of color and text. Many of these later drawings are fraught with Fischer’s thoughts and satire on society and politics, where his bird-like figures navigate a garish wider world, competing for space between and behind Fischer’s narratives.