Outsider Artist Oswald Tschirtner

Oswald Tschirtner (Austria, b.1920)

Oswald Tschirtner was born in Lower Austria and completed his higher education in a clerical seminary. He wanted to study theology and become a priest. When he realized it was not possible for him to do so he studied chemistry.

When World War II began, he was called to serve in the army and was taken prisoner by the French. As a prisoner-of-war, he experienced mental disturbances and by the time he returned to Austria in 1946, he had to enter a psychiatric hospital where he has remained since 1947.

Through the encouragement of the founder of the Gugging house of artists, Dr. Leo Navratil, Tschirtner began making elongated figures he called Kopffussler or “Headfooters.” These creatures with arms and legs that are the same length, are not original to Tschirtner and can be found elsewhere, yet he presented them in inventive ways that have evolved into other minimal forms of figuration. At the suggestion of Navratil, the artist also did his own idiosyncratic versions of photographs or paintings he was shown. He rarely initiates any drawing, but will produce works upon request; on the other hand, one is never sure how or to what degree the end result will conform to the original request.

Since 1981, Tschirtner has been a member of The Artists House at Gugging, the realization of Navaril’s dream of bringing together artistically active patients to offer them better living conditions and more opportunities to create. He continues to lead a quite and orderly life there, working crossword puzzles, and getting on well with his fellow artist residents.

Tschirtner’s work is included in the Collection de l’Art Brut (Jean Dubuffet’s personal collection), Tschirtner’s work was also part of an exhibition called “War and Peace” at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland as well as the exhibition “ABCD: a Collection of Art Brut” at the American Museum of Folk Art in New York and the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago.

Judy A Saslow Gallery