Johann Hauser (artist)

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Johann Hauser (born November 30, 1926 in Bratislava , † January 7, 1996 in Klosterneuburg , Lower Austria ) was a visual artist.

From 1981, Hauser lived in what is now the House of Artists in Gugging, currently part of the Art / Brut Center Gugging . Along with Oswald Tschirtner and August Walla, he is one of the most prominent artistic positions from Gugging.

Hauser's oeuvre is primarily received under the Art Brut categorization , which is continuously and critically discussed in the art-historical discourse.

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Johann Hauser worked with simple graphic means, mainly with pencil and colored pencils, as well as with chalks or occasionally with the use of collage elements. In addition, the artist also created a graphic work.

The subjects of his expressive drawings are women, flying and moving machines, fantastic architecture, the animal world, but also geometric figures in a minimalist representation.

On the one hand, Hauser worked completely freely and drew the picture themes from himself - the drawing then seems to be the direct expression of his imagination of the subjects and his emotions towards them. On the other hand, when he turned to culture and current events, Hauser found the motifs of his drawings and an absolutely independent visual language.

The artist created a total of 1,600 works.

Biography and artistic career

Hauser was born in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia .

In 1943 Hauser was first admitted to the Lower Austrian state sanatorium and nursing home Mauer-Oehling , the reasons for this are unclear. On March 6, 1949, the 22-year-old was transferred to the Lower Austrian sanatorium in Gugging .

Johann Hauser's first drawings were created in the context of the drawing test method initiated by the psychiatrist Leo Navratil in Gugging. Leo Navratil was Hauser's doctor from 1959. The artist's first dated drawings date from this period. Hauser's drawing activities, however, went beyond the scope of the drawing test sessions in immediate succession.

In 1965 Navratil published “Schizophrenia and Art. A contribution to the psychology of design ”. With this book, illustrations of works and poetry from the clinic in Gugging were released to the outside world for the first time, including drawings by Johann Hauser. In the “schizophrenic designers” chapter, Navratil published works by artists from Gugging under a pseudonym: Johann Hauser appeared as “Hans”. Johann Feilacher , Navratil's successor from 1986, contradicts Navratil's schizophrenia diagnosis to Hauser.

In the period following the appearance of Navratil's publication, artists of the Austrian “ avant-garde ” of the time, such as Arnulf Rainer or Peter Pongratz, came to the hospital on the outskirts of Vienna to get to know the creators of the works shown. From this point on, the first etchings in Gugging were created in collaboration with Pongratz. The technique of etching suited Hauser's powerful drawing lines very well; from this point on he worked regularly on copper plates.

In 1969 there was the first exchange of letters between Navratil and Jean Dubuffet , among other things the founder of the term " Art Brut ". After Navratil sent two etchings from Hauser to Dubuffet as part of this written correspondence, Dubuffet became interested in the artists in the Gugging asylum. Subsequently, Dubuffet personally assigned the categorization “ Art Brut ” for works from Gugging.

The etching “Lion or Tiger” by Johann Hauser became the subject of the poster for the first exhibition of works by artists from Gugging: “Pareidolien. Print from the Lower Austrian State Hospital for Psychiatry and Neurology Klosterneuburg ”in the gallery next St. Stephan , Vienna. In the following years Hauser took part in numerous other exhibitions.

In 1978 Navratil's first publication appeared, which was dedicated to an artist from Gugging: “Johann Hauser. Art out of mania and depression ”. As the title suggests, Navratil's psychiatric interest was primarily aimed at observing the alternation between manic and depressive states and their effects on Hauser's graphic products and not on their artistic quality.

In 1979 the artist had his first solo exhibition in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich: "Johann Hauser - Drawings and Etchings". From this year Hauser also undertook the first trips abroad in the context of international exhibitions.

At the beginning of the eighties, extensive restructuring took place in the hospital in Gugging. This brought a crucial opportunity for Navratil and a group of artistically talented patients. The "Pavilion 11" on the outermost edge of the clinic premises was rededicated in 1981 and the Center for Art Psychotherapy and the House of Artists , later renamed by Feilacher, founded. 18 patients moved into the center, among them Johann Hauser, and from this point on they had the opportunity to pursue their creative activities in their living area and receive special support. The blue star, which is represented in numerous works by Hauser, became the symbol of the house.

In 1983, on the initiative of Feilacher, the artists from Gugging began designing murals on the facade of today's House of Artists . Hauser was the first to immortalize himself with the depiction of a snake on the facade.

In 1991, Hauser went on a trip to the USA due to participation in exhibitions in Philadelphia and New York. Further international exhibition projects followed in the next few years.

On January 7, 1996, Johann Hauser died of complications from pneumonia.

Solo exhibitions

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Baumann: Art Brut? Outsider Art? Figure of thought and assertion . In: Art Bulletin . No. 3 , 2001.
  2. ↑ a b c Leo Navratil: Schizophrenia and Art. A contribution to the psychology of design. 1st edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1965, p. 52 .
  3. ↑ a b Johann Feilacher: … I am the artist! In: Johann Feilacher (Ed.): Johann Hauser… I am the artist . Residenz Verlag, Salzburg / Vienna 2016, p. 48 .
  4. ^ Leo Navratil: Johann Hauser. Art out of mania and depression . Rogner and Bernhard, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-8077-0105-2 .
  5. ^ Roman Gerold: A visit to the artists from Gugging. In: The Standard. August 2, 2018, accessed March 19, 2019 .
  6. ↑ CAROM.! Art from Gugging in the Essl Collection. In: Website of the Essl Collection. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hauser, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Bratislava
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1996
Place of death Klosterneuburg , Lower Austria