SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Oswald Tschirtner

Born in Perchtoldsdorf in 1920 and died in Maria Gugging, near Vienna, in 2007, Oswald Tschirtner lived and worked at the Gugging institution. Admitted to the Maria Gugging psychiatric hospital in 1954, he remained there, then moved to the House of Artists in Gugging in 1981.

His drawing practice is described as responding to an invitation and a precise indication of a subject. Executed in India ink on paper, often in a small format, his sheets reduce representation to minimal forms at the boundary of abstraction. Human figures frequently appear as schematic, sexless silhouettes, their arms and legs joining directly to the head. The angel is a recurring motif. A 1994 sheet titled “Ein Engel” is one example: executed in pen and ink on firm wove paper, it bears the artist’s monogram. Another sheet, a pen-and-ink drawing dated 8 January 1993, measures 15 × 10.5 cm.

Several solo exhibitions have marked the presentation of his work: in 1998, the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Museum de Stadshof in Zwolle and the Rupertinum in Salzburg each devoted exhibitions to him; in 2005, Galerie Yukiko Koide in Tokyo presented “New works by Oswald Tschirtner”. In 2020, the museum Gugging in Maria Gugging dedicated the exhibition “oswald tschirtner.! das ganze beruht auf gleichgewicht” to him. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, the Centre Pompidou, LaM, the Albertina in Vienna and the museum Gugging. Publications devoted to his drawings include a book by Leo Navratil and Dieter Ronte published in 1980 and Das rote Zebra. Zeichnungen von Oswald Tschirtner, published by Johann Feilacher in 1997.

This profile brings together identity references for Oswald Tschirtner and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

2 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky, Kornfeld. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Sources and references

• Reference record
• LoC · Reference link only; institutional text and images are not reproduced.
• Documentary source
• Documentary source
• Documentary source
• Documentary source

SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19