Johann Fischer (Austrian, b. 1919)

Johann Fischer was born in Kirchberg am Wagram, a small town west of Austria, in 1919. While he initially trained and worked as a baker, in 1940 he enlisted in the military. Held captive during WWII, six years later he returned home and began to work on his parent’s farm. This marked the beginning of the deterioration of his mental health, and in 1967 he was hospitalized for hallucinations. For Fischer, this time represents a death of the outside world followed by a “rebirth” in the hospital. He believes that his previous life was not his own but someone else’s whom he has named his “predecessor”. He states: “I was made-created-made on June 16th, 1967, at the cemetery of the Kierling-gugging hospital, between 6:30 and 10:00 PM, by the father of my predecessor god the father almighty. And from a little seed, drawn from the well of proper seeds, following an additional wish.”

Johann Fischer joined the Gugging house of artists in 1981. Inspired by the artwork of the other residents of Gugging, he began to draw himself. He is always the first artist to be working on his drawings every morning. His early drawings were of isolated animals and people, but with time his compositions became increasingly complex. Most of his later works include text that Fischer scripts beautifully on the page. In his artwork he tells stories about winemaking, farming, politics and life in the Gugging house of artists.

In 2001 Fischer’s art was displayed in “ABCD: a Collection of Art Brut” at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and across the US as part of Bruno Decharme’s collection. In 2003 the ABCD collection exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL.