Franz Kernbeis

1935 to 2019, Austria

Franz Kernbeis was born in Prigglitz, Lower Austria and spent his childhood at his parents’ farm, where he had to work after finishing school. His mental problems became noticeable as early as age seventeen.

In 1955, he entered the psychiatric clinic in Gugging where he began to draw at the age of forty-four. He had been living and working in the House of Artists since 1981. He was a very focused artist who used only pencils and coloured pencils in large and small formats, always starting with the contours. His archaic-seeming depictions of people, animals, landscapes and various objects have a closed shape. His work can be found in collections such as that of Fabio and Leo Cei, Italy, in the collection of Rolf Röthlisberger, since 2021 in the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Switzerland, and in the Diamond Collection, Austria.

Selected works