josef hofer
the figure in the mirror
Pour sa cinquième exposition monographique à la galerie christian berst art brut, l’artiste autrichien Josef Hofer (né en 1945) réaffirme sa place de figure essentielle de l’art brut contemporain. Sa trajectoire, indissociable de son œuvre, transcende les cadres établis.
The event will showcase some thirty previously unseen works dating from 2002 to 2020. On this occasion, a bilingual monograph will be published, along with a critical essay by the exhibition curator, Fabrizio Donini-Ferretti. Echoing this event, the launch of his online catalogue raisonné will crown decades of creation, cataloguing nearly 2,200 works.
A resident for over 30 years at an Austrian institution, Josef Hofer does not speak—he draws. Tirelessly. In the mirror he holds up to himself and to us, the figures attempt to take flight within the constraints of the frame with an erotized, untamed grace. His work, driven by a constant tension between the body and the psyche, is among the most striking expressions of contemporary Art Brut.
Regarded by Arnulf Rainer as “one of the greatest contemporary Art Brut artists,” his work is featured in numerous public and private collections, while a significant selection of his pieces has joined the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou). In 2025, Josef Hofer was exhibited at the Grand Palais (Paris) alongside the leading figures of international Art Brut.
Josef Hofer, who has been a resident of an Austrian institution for over 30 years, does not speak. He draws. Tirelessly. In the metaphoric mirror that he uses and reaches out to us, people attempt to flee from the straitjacket of the frame with eroticized and untamed grace. His works - to which Michel Thévoz has devoted several essays - depict a founding duality between body and psyche. Present in numerous museum collections, he is also part of great private collections: A. de Galbert (France), A. Shaker (Switzerland) and even in the collection of A. Rainer (Austria), who considered him “one of the greatest of the brut contemporary artists.” A significant number of his works were donated to the Centre Pompidou collection in 2021 while the gallery became the owner of his estate in 2022.