Johann Garber

1947 Austrian, b.

Tags: Drawing, Painting

Johann Garber was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. When he was nineteen years old, he started treatment at the psychiatric hospital in Maria Gugging, a community within the Austrian town of Klosterneuburg. He started making art in the late 1970s and moved into the House of Artists in Maria Gugging in 1981.

Garber’s first colored pencil works feature figures formed with blocks of color. In the early 1980s he worked with black ink applied with a fine pen. His source materials include old calendars and photos. His flat, colorful drawings bring together celestial bodies, plants, nude figures, animals, buildings, imagined places, various objects, symbols, text, and decorative motifs. He often spends months at a time on one piece, covering every inch to create complex, sweeping compositions. His brightly colored paintings, which he started making in 1983, are more loosely arranged. Garber also paints found objects, including nesting boxes, tree fungi, wood, and toy guns. His paintings can be found throughout the House of Artists: on door frames and light switches and in the boiler room.