Johann Hauser's drawings are intense and powerful: their colours and contrasts are intense and bright, with powerful outlines and the immense certainty within the artist's pencil-stroke. Hauser use pencil and colour pencils. He reaches within this very original and direct artistic technique, a very high level of artistic expression. The drawer's strongly emotional approach to his work becomes visible in tiny holes, that rubbed through areas in the surface of the drawing paper. In general, Hauser's pictures are dedicated to the “beauty and tremendousness” of human life. On a more concrete level, one of the main themes is the female body and ist appearance. Hauser was born in 1926 and from 1943 lived in mental institutions. His early drawings can be dated back to the late fifties. As soon as Hauser's works reached public attention, the interest of the art world in his work and he as an artist grew. Today he is well known as one of the key artist in the world of “Art Brut”. His artworks are part of several renowned collections and since 1970, frequently shown in international exhibitions across borders of art history genres. In 1979 Hauser's first solo show took place. In 1981 he was one of the outstanding talented members of the artists’ community living in the House of Artists, nowadays part of the Art Brut Centre Gugging in Maria Gugging, Austria. In 1990 Hauser received, together with the group of Gugging Artists, the “Oskar-Kokoschka Prize”. Hauser was living and working at the House of Artists until he passed away in 1996. For further information please visit: www.gugging.com/www.gugging.org. Creditline: Johann Hauser, 1986, Naked woman with hat. Pencil and colour pencils, 73 × 102 cm © Privatstiftung – Künstler aus Gugging.

Thanks to Drew Walker for co-ordinating this series of images and for obtaining permission to use them.

We are always looking for interesting and visually appealing images for the cover of the Journal and would welcome suggestions or pictures, which should be sent to Dr Allan Beveridge, British Journal of Psychiatry, 21 Prescot Street London E1 8BB, UK or [email protected].