On Henry Darger and Canada

I never reviewed how my Friday art night was. So, here goes.

Though I was vaguely familiar with Henry Darger, I had somehow forgotten how disturbing the content of his art is. A relatively solitary man who lived in Chicago during the 1930's and did menial labor, he produced a massive amount of artwork and a sprawling work of writing, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War-Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. He is considered an "outsider artist" not only because his artwork production was for purely personal motivations, but because he had no formal artistic training and instead relied on collage and tracing to appropriate images for his own narrative and artistic ends.

Henry Darger's art is both highly disturbing and mystifyingly breathtaking. His thematic focus was on girls, in various stages of dress and undress, battling against their attackers, older adult men. The girls, cherubic-like creatures, fighting their battles in settings ranging from actual battlefields to lush forests, often featured male anatomy, and worked alongside mythical creatures to escape from and fight against these menacing adult male figures. It has often been said of Darger, that, had he not had this frenzied, prolific artistic outlet, that he would very possibly have been a psychopathic rapist and/or serial killer. Possibly so, possibly not: but as far as we know, he never tried to realize any of his demented scenes or preoccupations in real life.

With his bizarre juxtaposition of such frightening, demented content and his superbly gorgeous color sense, along with the general surreal quality of his artistic process, Darger has proved to be a major influence not only on so-called outsider art, but throughout the art world. Amy Cutler was only one artist among others who was displayed in the American Folk Art's "Dargerism" exhibit as one artist who was so significantly affected by Darger's work. While I respect the utilization of the art process to serve one's personal emotional and psychological ends, and the ingenuity, or at least unconventional nature, of portraying girls as creatures of warfare, I am puzzled and turned off by how clearly, transparently derivative some artists were/are of Darger. Okay, yes, imitation is the highest form of flattery, and sure, Darger's work resonates, perhaps intensely, with some people. But what about making art from a more intensely personal foundation, towards more personal, individual ends?

For more information on Darger's life and work, see the Carl Hammer Gallery link as well as the Wikipedia link on him.

Also, if you have not yet been to the American Folk Art Museum, I recommend it, especially during the free Friday night events. The Darger exhibit closed yesterday, but I anticipate other noteworthy exhibits in the future. Also, it is conveniently located right by MoMa.

As for Canada, I was not especially impressed with the exhibit, which mostly featured newspaper very meticulously wallpapered on the walls and odds and ends that looked like junk displayed haphazrdly around the gallery. However, I was impressed with the space, and am curious about future shows as well as possibly trying to display my own work there...