Johann Garber

Johann Garber, born in Wiener Neustadt in 1947, moved permanently to the psychiatric institution in Maria Gugging at the age of twenty-one, where he has lived and worked at the Haus der Künstler (House of artists) since 1981.

While Arnulf Rainer’s overpaintings are characterized by a tension between fullness and emptiness, between paint layer and background, Garber’s work is characterized by a homogenous “all-over” treatment: a pictorial field or picture surface filled entirely with forms or colors.

The large-format ink drawing Die Arche Noah (1989) is framed with lines of circles, a hallmark of Garber’s work. All elements of the densely populated drawing have equal status. In addition to the ark that lends the work its title, one discovers all kinds of elements, from elephants and giraffes to various flying objects and even the sun and moon, which also appear in Garber’s other “paradisiacal” drawings. Depicted directly above the ship, are also a number of fellow artists from Gugging.

Among Johann Garber’s most iconic works are his “Krickerln”—colorful hunting trophies covered in bright acrylic paints. In addition to everyday objects, Garber also artistically reworks his immediate surroundings, such as armchairs, light switches, or the coal furnace in his workshop, the former boiler room at the Haus der Künstler. One of Garber’s best-known outdoor works is Ohres, a large painted ear in front of the ORF broadcasting building in Vienna.