Drawings of a shepherd who spent 35 years in an insane asylum, and then became an artist

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

He was born back in 1864 in the family of an ordinary Swiss bricklayer and spent thirty-five years of his life in a psychiatric clinic in a town called Bern. His drawings to this day are very popular among connoisseurs of such creativity, and his biography consists of many unusual facts that cannot be refuted or confirmed. Meet the legendary artist (Adolf Wolfli), dubbed as a man of art and psychiatry.

Born into the family of a laundress and a bricklayer, he went the hard way from a shepherd to a lumberjack and a handyman, and at the age of ten, Adolf was sent to an orphanage, where he faced a difficult orphan life.

At the age of nineteen, he fell in love with a girl and, having wooed her, was rejected by her family. Desperate, the guy went to the army, where he served for some time, but, never recovering from the postponed refusal, in each meeting Adolf saw only his one and only beloved. Eventually, at the age of twenty-five, he was sent to prison for harassment.

After the expiration of the term, after being released from prison, the future artist spent no more, no less, but four years at large. After that, for the same act as the last time, he was recognized as mentally unhealthy, sent to a specialized hospital, where he spent thirty-five years of his life - until his death.

During the first ten years, suffering from hallucinations, Adolf was incredibly aggressive, which is why he was kept in the hotel room away from other patients.

Several years later, unexpectedly for himself and those around him, he began to draw on scraps of old newspapers. And only over time, he had the opportunity to be creative in more suitable conditions.

In addition to drawing, he began to write his autobiography, which contained more than three thousand illustrations and twenty-five thousand pages. By the end of the author's life, her text consisted of forty-five volumes, supplemented by drawings, poems, texts and notes.

In his works, the artist and poet in one person invented his life, the way he wanted to see. Indeed, in fact, his entire existence was spent in state-owned houses from orphanages and prisons to a psychiatric hospital.

His extensive autobiography was so gripping and fantastic that it was impossible to stop reading. The author described and painted those places that he had never been to, as well as those that never existed.

All drawings of Doofy (the author's childhood nickname) resemble mandalas, sacred drawings and ritual patterns of the tribal peoples of Africa and not only. Looking at them, one gets the impression that the author was somehow strangely transported to those places and times about which he diligently told and portrayed.

Adolf is one of the brightest representatives of art brut, who created, being possessed by mental disorders, which is why, almost all of his works are of a spontaneous nature, inherent in surrealism.

A couple of days before his death, the artist was very upset that he did not manage to finish the final part of his truly fantastic autobiography, including about three thousand more songs.

After the death of Adolf, all his colossal and unique work was first shown in Europe and the USA, and in 75, all his works were transferred by the administration of the clinic to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern.

Japanese woman Yayoi Kusama also spent in an insane asylum, creating such strange paintings and installations that, looking at them, you yourself involuntarily start to go crazy from the abundance of "peas" rippling in your eyes. Not so far from her did the Japanese artist leave, who, being of sound mind and memory, created a hellish mixture of plots and styles on super-flat paintings.