Johann Fischer Austrian nationality Born in Eggendorf am Wagram in 1919

Joahann Fischer comes from a farming family. His wish is to become a baker but he is mobilized during the Second World War and captured by the Americans.

He is later hospitalized for hallucinations. This represents for him the death in the outside world and a rebirth in the hospital. He pretends that his previous life was not his but someone else's whom he names his "predecessor": "I was made-created-made on June 16th, 1967, at the cemetery of the Kierling-Gugging Hospital, between 6.30 p.m. and 10.00 p.m., 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 joins the House of the Gugging Artists in 1981. Writings, omnipresent in his work, act like commentaries and bear a political, social and religious nature. He describes a grotesque world, most often illustrated by gaudy colored figures, disjointed and made to look like clowns or fools.

The obstination with which he documents this grotesque world reminds us of the Adventures of the Brave Soldier Schweik by the Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek; the story of a soldier from the Austrian army who - faced with the absurdities of the war - refuses as a "good fool" to take part in them.

This is the text that appears on the drawing of the ABCD collection: "For every thousand inhabitants in our sovereign country of Austria, there are hundred fifty who suffer from hunger. In our sovereign capital of Vienna, in our sovereign republic of Austria, if the children eat, their parents suffer from hunger, and if the parents eat, their children suffer from hunger. And the cause of this famine is the lack of schillings.

Our sovereign Vienna! Our sovereign Vindobona! Our Sovereign! Our sovereign Wien! Our sovereign capital of Vienna! (...) It is easy to compare prices. (...) God of all Gods, Mr Fritz Zimmerl just needs to show his power, to say it, to think it or to write it in order to apply safety to all driving vehicles. And the same holds for the trains. And the happy Austrian men and women will then sing in honor of God and of his family! (...) The prices of vehicles should be accessible to everyone. God of all Gods, you have wished for proud people for a sovereign Austria. You do not need to go further. With the lack of schillings has come a lack of food. 23-25-26-30-31 January, January, January 1995, Fischer Johann"

SEE ALSO: Publications de la Collection de l'Art Brut, fascicule 17, Lausanne, 1992.

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