Josef Hofer, who signed his raw, figurative drawings 'Pepi', died on October 23 in Ried im Innkreis, according to his Paris gallery, as reported by ARTnews.

Josef Hofer, the Austrian outsider artist who signed his works "Pepi", has died at the age of 80, ARTnews reports, citing the French publication Le Quotidien de l'Art. The Paris gallery Christian Berst, which hosted his most recent show this autumn, said he died on October 23 in the Upper Austrian town of Ried im Innkreis, shortly after being hospitalised with complications from a pulmonary infection. Born on March 17, 1945, Hofer had a speech and developmental disability and was hard of hearing; according to the report, his parents hid him as a child from Nazi forces, and the family's isolation in rural Upper Austria continued afterwards because they feared contact with the advancing Soviet army.

Hofer rarely spoke and expressed himself instead through raw, figurative drawings that reflected his own life and observations, including erotic nudes set inside a signature frame drawn in reds, yellows and oranges, as though enclosed or trapped. After his father's death in 1977 the family moved to Kirschlag, where he began meeting other people and was admitted as an inpatient at a psychiatric clinic in Ried. He discovered drawing in 1985 and went on to make thousands of coloured-pencil works on paper, moving from scenes of farm life to the nudes, which were inspired in part by Egon Schiele. Art historian Elisabeth Telsnig found him at a drawing class in 1997; she later described his drawings as a total break from anything she had been shown until then.

Exhibitions followed across Europe, including at the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne in 2003, a 2010 retrospective at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague and a major 2022 show at the Kunstmuseum Thurgau in Warth, Switzerland. His work is held by the Centre Pompidou and by collectors including Antoine de Galbert, Bruno Decharme and Arnulf Rainer. Gallerist Christian Berst told ARTnews that for Hofer creating was not a choice but a vital necessity, a way of inhabiting the world and making a mark in it. The contemporary art centre Mo.Co in Montpellier is preparing an art brut exhibition featuring his work, titled "I Am the Phantom of My Own Opera", scheduled to run from December 5 to May 2, 2027.