Josef Bachler

1914 to 1979, Austria

Born in Vienna, following the death of his mother during his birth, Josef Bachler was raised in an orphanage, by foster parents and a farmer.

He worked as a roofer and was held at the Dachau concentration camp for unknown reasons from 1938 to 1945. Due to his problems with alcohol, he was committed to the Mauer-Öhling psychiatric hospital and, as of 1970, to the Lower Austrian State Hospital for Psychiatry and Neurology Klosterneuburg (Niederösterreichisches Landeskrankenhaus für Psychiatrie und Neurologie Klosterneuburg). He stayed at this institution until his death. Leo Navratil inspired him to draw. The style of his mostly pencil drawings was strong and decisive. He usually framed his figures with a pencil or coloured pencils. Josef Bachler is represented in the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. His works are also kept in private collections, such as the collection of Gerhard and Karin Dammann, Switzerland, the collection of Rolf Röthlisberger, since 2021 in the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Switzerland, the collection of Dagmar and Manfred Chobot, Austria, and the collection of Helmut Zambo, Germany/Austria.

Selected works