Having had little formal schooling, Johann Korec began working at the age of 14 as a farmhand and shepherd, while dreaming of caring for animals in a circus. Plagued by increasingly debilitating mental health issues, he was institutionalized in 1958 at the Gugging Psychiatric Hospital. Twenty-three years later, he joined the Haus der Künstler,  where a new life entirely devoted to art began.
His technique unfolds in two stages: first, he collects newspapers and cuts out illustrations, which he then traces onto paper, sometimes layering several tracings for a single drawing. In the second stage, he sexualizes the reproduced characters, with mating forming the core of his narrative.