Outsider Austrian artist Josef Hofer , who was hidden as a child from Nazi forces by his parents due to a speech and developmental disability, has died at 80, reports Le Quotidien de l’Art . Gallery Christian Berst in Paris, where the artist had his last show this fall, said he passed away in the western Upper Austrian town of Ried im Innkreis on Friday, October 23, shortly after he was hospitalized for complications related to a pulmonary infection.

Hofer, who signed his works “Pepi,” rarely spoke and was hard of hearing, instead expressing himself through raw, figurative drawings that reflected his own life and observations. These included depictions of erotic nudes within a signature frame drawn in reds, yellows, and oranges, as though enclosed or trapped.

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“He was one of those artists for whom creating was not a choice but a vital necessity,” Christian Berst told ARTnews via email.…