The beginnings of Johann Fischer’s artistic development are directly linked with his moving into what is now the “House of Artists” in 1982. Stimulated by the people around him there, who were working creatively in diverse ways, he soon began to reach for pencil and paper himself. He only drew with pencils and black colored pencils at first. Then, in 1984, he also began to use various other colored pencils, particularly in warm tones of yellow and brown; over the years, this became intensified into complexly interwoven, boldly colorful works. While he initially only created drawings featuring animals and people from specific professions, over time he began to supplement these images with lettering and text. These passages of text featuring his calligraphic script are written on lines drawn by the artist himself. The texts are repeatedly numbered, defining the order in which they are to be read. These medium-format sheets, which he made from the late eighties onward, display an unbelievable intensity and density. The range of themes here is significantly more diverse: family, illness, agriculture, devices, Catholicism, and particularly Austria are all to be found. Fischer was political and often wrote about Austria—his “sovereign” Austria—as a patriot. However, he offered criticism as well as praise: he wanted to expose injustices and also used his drawing as a platform for proclaiming his dissatisfaction. 

Johann Fischer was born on October 5, 1919, in Eggendorf am Wagram, located just a few miles from today’s Maria Gugging. He was the third of seven children, and his parents ran a small farm with a vineyard. He attended elementary school and completed an apprenticeship as a baker up to his examination as a master tradesman. In 1940 Fischer was drafted into the German military and was then captured as an American prisoner of war. One year after the war ended, Fischer returned back to his parents’ farm and ultimately began to run it. From then on, he led the life of a winegrower and cherished the wish to marry and found a family. Fischer sought psychiatric treatment for the first time in 1957. He became a permanent patient at what was then the “Mental Health and Care Facility at Gugging” in 1961 and finally, in 1982, a part of the group of Gugging Artists. Fischer passed away on September 23, 2008, at the age of eighty-eight.