Oswald Tschirtner (1920 in
Perchtoldsdorf
Perchtoldsdorf (; colloquially ''Petersdorf'') is a market town in the Mödling District, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is known chiefly for its winemaking.
Geography
It is located immediately at the Vienna city limits, south of the ...
,
Lower Austria
Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
– 20 May 2007) was an artist from
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
who had schizophrenia. He was known by the "pseudonym" of O.T.
Life
Oswald Tschirtner was raised by an aunt and uncle in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and being very religious, attended a seminary school from the age of ten. He intended to become a priest, but was drafted into the German army in 1937. He fought at Stalingrad, and subsequently spent time in a prison camp in southern France. After the war, he was stricken by periods of religious fervor and violent episodes, and was sent to a psychiatric institute in 1947.
In 1957, he was sent to the
Klosterneuburg Hospital near Vienna, and it was there that he began to draw, albeit reluctantly, under the supervision of
Leo Navratil
Leo Navratil (3 July 1921 in Türnitz, Lower Austria – 18 September 2006 in Vienna) was an Austrian psychiatrist and author.
He worked in the hospital in Gugging. He called the works, paintings, and texts of his patients " Zustandsgebundene Kun ...
and other hospital staff. He displayed a unique approach to his works through his selective use of line and detail. His figures, particularly in his drawings from the 1980s onwards, are extremely reductive, and he arrives at the essential essence of portrayal through the conveyance of a minimal amount of visual detail.
Tschirtner lived at the Haus der Künstler (House of Artists) since its opening in 1981. Located on the grounds of the Klosterneuburg Hospital in
Maria-Gugging, Austria, this is a domicile where patients who show significant artistic talent live very independently and focus on their creative work.
Solo exhibitions
* 1980
Museum Moderner Kunst Wien
Books
* illustration in "Bebende Herzen im Leibe der Hunde", München 1979
See also
*
Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.
''Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.'' (or ''Drawings of Patient O. T.'') is the second studio album by the Berlin-based musical group Einstürzende Neubauten. Some Bizzare Records released the album in 1983, and it was distributed in Germany by Rou ...
External links
Biography and works, at the Gugging Museum* Robin Pape
Biography of Oswald Tschirtnerin
Biographical Archive of Psychiatry (BIAPSY) 2015.
1920 births
2007 deaths
People from Mödling District
20th-century Austrian artists
Austrian male artists
Outsider artists
Austrian military personnel of World War II
20th-century Austrian male artists
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