Born 1930 in Altlag/Jugoslawien, († 1996) 
Resident since 1971 in Haus-Kannen

Josef  König  is a friendly, contented man, with a cheerful nature. As a person who is interested in his environment, it is not uncommon to find him outside observing the everyday events in the hospital grounds.

He was first introduced to painting in art therapy 10 years ago. With the ideas communicated to him then, he went on to develop his own original form of picture, enabling him his own personal expression. The fact that Josef König is deaf and dumb increases the value of this expressive outlet immensely. Josef König paints each picture with enthusiasm, passion and abandon. He paints with crayons. This helps him in particular to master the difficulties he has in fine motoric co-ordination of the lines, due to strong tremors in both hands.

In his first pictures Josef König drew short coloured lines next to each other. These were extended in the works that followed to format-filling or multi-coloured line structures. Then came the works in which circles of various sizes were lined up one after the other, and then all cray­oned over in a layer of glowing colour. Later came pictures in which the areas deriving from the combination of circles were shaded in with a different colour. Over the years he has built up an extensive set of works. The viewer is presented with a sheer inexhaustible variety of pictures.

Exhibitions:

1995 Individuen Museum De Stadshof, Zwolle/NL

Individuen, Kolvenburg, Coesfeld

1997 Center Design, 9. International Conference, Linz/Austria