henry darger - outsider artist

"Do you believe it, unlike most children, I hated to see the day come when I will be grown up. I never wanted to. I wished to be young always. I am a grownup now and an old lame man, darn it."--Henry J. Darger

One night I saw a documentary about Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger … PBS also showed a different short about the animator who took the original from the outsider artist’s 20,000 pages of story and collages & drawings & exquisite watercolors and attempted to give it motion.

“The work of Darger's life was a saga titled ‘The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnean War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.’ It is a seemingly endless, repetitious and obsessively detailed narrative of child martyrdom, massacre and Edenic innocence set on an imaginary planet largely populated by moppets of six to 10.” (Time Magazine)



However, I really strongly recommend you see the documentary from 2004. Its his true biography interlaced with sequences from the storyline of his literature. It is about an autistic savant, outsider artist (developmentally deficient for you pc types) whose absolutely inspired epic about “the Vivian Girls” battle fantastic creatures in an invented world where children are sometimes enslaved by the oddly Confederate overlords and later armed by these seven Vivian Girls. Alternating between profane violence and blissful paradises, innocently hermaphroditic nude children and butterflies tangle with all sorts of challenges from creatures to labor reform. It eerily charming and absolutely fascinating to me.

Henry was a weird cat. He was institutionalized at a very young age in a scandal plagued madhouse and upon his escape lived a reclusive existence in Chicago as a janitor for a Catholic charitable hospital. He rarely left his apartment and no one knew about his epic story creation until about a month before he died in his 80’s.

a volume from "Story of the Vivian Girls" by Darger displayed at Amon Carter Museum, photo by Suzi Migdol

He was hyper-concerned with child welfare and was inspired to design one of the Vivian girls based on a photo printed of a murdered waif from the 30’s. We might also mention that he kept that photo around with him for several decades until it was lost after an apartment break-in.

Mural Size Vivian Girls by Darger displayed at Amon Carter Museum, photo by Suzi Migdol

  detail of Vivian Girls mural by Darger displayed at Amon Carter Museum, photo by Suzi Migdol

back side of Mural Size Vivian Girls by Darger displayed at Amon Carter Museum, photo by Suzi Migdol

 There is much controversy about whether Henry was a harmless, misunderstood creative child in the body of an adult or if he was an untried pedophile and murderer, driven to create by obsession and guilt. I tend to want to think that he was obsessive compulsive and was too religious to allow himself to hurt a fly much less act on sinful impulses. I think the obvious fact that the genitalia of the characters in his work is naïve and unformed by the exposure to female anatomy, suggests that Henry had never had a girlfriend or lover. This behavior suggest to me that his repression would not allow him to act on romantic interests and probably precluded him from more sinister criminal pursuits as well. I think his work is the product of retarded genius, the dark scenes project his lifelong struggle with the evil on Earth that his god does not prevent and get pretty gruesome. The scenes of joy and light revel in the innocence of nature, fantasy and childhood and are colorful and deliberate.

There is an exhibit in New York at the American Folk Art Museum that just closed of 300 watercolors from the roughly 15,000 pieces held in their permanent collection. There are also rumblings of an exhibit in Chicago recreating his pack-rack apartment. I adore outsider art & Henry is justifiably becoming increasingly famous after his own lifetime.

If you like abnormal psychology or outsider art, Henry is a fascinating research subject. There are very good texts by both Michael Bonesteel (whose Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings includes some of Henry's writings) and John MacGregor (I prefer Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal as MacGregor spent more time with the material). The landlord’s wife who owns the copyrights to Henry’s work also was more involved in a beautifully illustrated book organized by Klaus Biesenbach called Henry Darger

Henry's original studio space in his apartment

Tour inside Henry's Apartment in Chicago > www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWbjIpfi_7w

Pics of Henry Darger’s works:
hammer gallery
edlin gallery

Readings on Darger:
time magazine
gseart
wiki
henryjdarger(dot)com
saraayers(dot)com
american folk art museum

henry darger reading list

Re-creation of Darger's apartment on display in Chicago

 

a volume from life memoirs by Darger displayed at Amon Carter Museum, photo by Suzi Migdol

Henry Darger's typewriter, photo by Jacinda Russell

& finally, one of the most accessible collections of photographs from his epic book can be found in:
Darger: The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum
 American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, 2001 at 128 glossy colored pages.