Henry Darger, Untitled, nd, watercolor, pencil and collage on paper

©Kiyoko Lerner

For the mentally ill, creating art can be a therapeutic
process that shapes a visual voice. The great painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) championed the work of the insane, categorizing it under the name of Art Brut (Raw Art). He compiled a collection of thousands of works by mental patients, which is housed in Lausanne, Switzerland. From Art Brut came the wider term Outsider Art, coined by the American art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972. Outsider Art includes works created by those not part of the mainstream art world, artists who are mentally unstable but not institutionalized. Their untrained, skillfully rendered works, sometimes portraying intricate fantasy worlds, are, sadly, often discovered only after the artist’s death.

And so it was with Henry Darger, an orphaned, reclusive janitor who lived in a dilapidated one-room apartment in Chicago for 40 years until his death in 1973. A short man dressed in unkempt clothes and often muttering to himself, he was known by his neighbors as a half-mad devout Catholic who attended mass daily. Yet no one knew about Darger’s other life as an artist and writer. Discovered by his landlords Kiyoko and Nathan Lerner only a few months before Darger’s death, his amazing autobiographical work has sparked an unprecedented interest in Outsider Art worldwide.

As a writer, illustrator and phantasmal storyteller, Darger created his works to illustrate his unfinished, densely typed, 15,000-page “novel,” In the Realms of the Unreal. An obsessive collector, Darger cut out pictures found in magazines and newspapers. Then, using overlay, collage, copying, tracing and watercoloring on cheap butcher paper, pasted together into a horizontal scroll, he created his scenes, some of which are over four meters long. The current exhibition contains 15 of the scroll-like works and 30 smaller paintings.

Henry Darger, Untitled, nd, watercolor, pencil and collage on paper

©Kiyoko Lerner

There’s no doubt that the novel and paintings reflect much of Darger’s difficult childhood. The artist was born in Chicago in 1892. After his mother died in childbirth when he was four, he was raised by his handicapped father until the age of eight. At this time the elder Darger became so ill that his son was left in the care of a Catholic-run orphanage. Although he did well academically at a local public school, Darger was deemed a problem child and sent to an asylum for mentally handicapped and emotionally disturbed children, where hard labor was part of the regular regimen. It was here, it seems, that Darger began to retreat into his inner world. After many unsuccessful attempts, he finally escaped the asylum at the age of 17.

Darger began In the Realms of the Unreal when he was 19, and the project occupied him for the next 11 years. The protagonists are seven sisters he called the “Vivian girls,” prepubescent princesses of the Christian nation of Abbiennia. With the help of “General Darger,” the artist’s alter ego, the girls lead a war against godless, child-enslaving men of the evil Glandelinian army.
Darger began to create paintings in the ’30s, and many of the scenes depict ghastly torture and abuse. Fortunately, none appear to be sexually themed, but the imagery, which includes lots of nudity, is disturbing nevertheless. Other scenes show a lovely paradise with pretty flowers, puffy clouds and blue skies.

Why the girls are depicted nude—and with small penises, no less—remains a matter of speculation. It had been conjectured that Darger was a suppressed pedophile, but now it’s believed that his paintings are expressive of his childlike innocence and that he championed the safety of young people. The inscription on his gravestone reads: “Henry Darger, Artist and Protector of Children.”
Darger’s work has inspired many, including fashion designer Anna Sui and British artist Grayson Perry. An award-winning documentary film about Darger’s life by Jessica Yu will be released in Japan in 2008.

How can an abused, poor, hermetic, religious fanatic with no formal training create a story of words and pictures that captivate and inspire so many? It is the mystery—horrific and beautiful—of
a survivor and inventor. There is a bit of Henry Darger in many of us.

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, through July 16. See exhibition listings (other areas) for details.

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