Rudolf Horacek

1915 to 1986, Austria

Rudolf Horacek was born in 1915 in Mannswörth, Lower Austria. He worked for a while as an assistant gardener in a nursery. In 1949 he was admitted to the Gugging psychiatric clinic.

He was quiet and kept to himself. In 1979 he was encouraged to try drawing and in 1981 he was accepted into the House of Artists, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. Heads and faces constituted the core focus of his creative work. He would carefully craft drawings in pencil to then conceal them underneath a profusion of pencil strokes. His largest work, which he made on a primed wood panel, was adopted as the logo for the newly opened museum gugging in 2006 and brought him international recognition. His work can be found, amongst other places, in the Essl Collection and the collection of Karin and Gerhard Dammann.

Selected works