Johann Hauser

1926-1996 · Gugging, Austria

The star of the House of Artists at Gugging, whose pencil women glow like neon and whose rockets fly on pure appetite.

The life

Born in Bratislava and institutionalised from his teens, Hauser arrived at the psychiatric clinic in Gugging near Vienna in 1949. There the psychiatrist Leo Navratil noticed that several patients drew with startling power, published them, and eventually founded the House of Artists, where residents lived and worked as artists. Hauser became its most celebrated figure, exhibited across Europe while never leaving the community.

The work

Women, stars, rockets and animals in pencil and coloured crayon, drawn in intense bursts that tracked his manic and depressive phases: at one pole, layered, saturated, ecstatic figures; at the other, thin spare outlines. The Gugging museum preserves and shows the legacy.

Why we love them

Hauser drew desire with the honesty most art spends a lifetime disguising. The pencil pressure alone is a biography.

Go deeper

• Museum Gugging
• Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
• The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.

Kindred spirits

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