Trösch, Johann
sans titre
Johann Troesch untitled, between 1940 and 1985 graphite on graph paper 11 x 16,5 cm © photo credit Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Author
Trösch, Johann ,
(1924 – 1984), Switzerland
Biography
Johann Trösch (1924–1984) was born in Zurich, Switzerland, with a serious spinal malformation. Paralysed from the waist down, he neither attended school nor received any training. Yet he learned to read and write. Apart from a few brief excursions in a wheelchair, he was confined to his bed all his life; here he spent his time reading and drawing. Trösch had a folding writing desk on which he worked while lying in bed.
He used small pieces of graph paper and pencil. He filled both sides of the paper with his personal experiences, thoughts, and the knowledge he had gleaned from his reading. With a fine, careful, and precise line, he drew things subjected to subtle changes in shape: pieces of machinery, vehicles, war materials, boats, planes, pictograms, typographic characters, trees, and flowers. In the same way, he drew various series of architectural elements, miniature buildings, stairs, and facades. These subjects are arranged on the page like molecules, giving shape to his encyclopaedic world. Trösch made thousands of drawings, but never showed them to anybody—not even his family—during his lifetime.
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