(Feld am See, Carinthia 1927–1987)
“Ansammlung von Flecken”, signed, dated Bischoffshausen 57, on the reverse in capital letters by the artist’s hand: “ HANS BISCHOFFSHAUSEN “ANSAMMLUNG VON FLECKEN JAN.1957”, 50/65 cm and information on galleries and exhibition locations, oil, filler on wood, 65 x 50 cm, framed

On the reverse list of galleries and exhibition locations:
Cavallina Venezia 1957 (Erste Personale, Gal. del Cavallina, Venezia) JAKOPICEV PAVILJON 1958
Galerie St. Stephan Wien 1958 (erste Personale in Österreich)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna

The Origins of Art
People are all too happy to view the origins of art (as we understand it, namely as an individual achievement) as being located in the most distant past because this allows the nebulous terms and content, such as cults, magic and religion, to be manipulated and tidily bundled together to form a non-committal image of the origins of art that fits with the preferred world view in question.
I do not allege that I will muster up proof that I know everything: here, there is only the intent to break down questionable, untenable viewpoints which have nowadays pushed art into being a component of culture, i.e. of a way of life, at least in chronicles of scandals, and have moved it out of society‘s consciousness as an activity which creates a way of life.
Just like when answering the question of the origin of man, we answer the question of the origin of art (asked in the same breath) with reference to our belief in the childhood fairy tales of our occasional philosophers. Consequently, since the year dot, we have dragged art around with us as a gift from above because it obeys something other than the laws of development innate to people, only showing itself to the „blessed“, „chosen“ or „inspired“ ones in moment of divine revelation. This spurious wisdom aligns perfectly with those who propagate elitist education and who want to see humanism in the cult of genius.
(First published in: Bischoffshausen und die Kultur, no. 4, 1965, pp. 56-59) - Arnulf Rohsmann, Bischoffshausen, Ritter Verlag, 1991