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Henry Darger


Henry Darger just may be the most interesting and disturbing story about an undiscovered artist. He lived from 1892-1973 mostly in Chicago, IL. His posthumously discovered artwork consisted of painting, drawing, and  collage. I can't imagine what this man had going on in his head, the children in his drawings come from such a sad and lonely place. They make me feel uncomfortable. The images are so alike in many ways, but still they each seem to be a real child. I wonder if he based them on real children that he met in life or if he based them on himself. I guess it could be both. His mom died of a fever when he was only a few years old and them his father died when he was 13. He was put in an institution when he was about 7 years old and he was labeled as a disturbed child  ("his heart isn't in the right place") because he hurt himself. He was punished harshly in the institution and he was bullied by the other students, it was a very sad and cruel place for him. He escaped when he was 16 years old. His Godmother in Chicago was able to get him a job at Catholic hospital as a janitor where he worked until he retired in 1963- ten years before he died. He never showed anyone his art and no one knew that he was an artist. When he died, his artwork was found in his apartment and so was many manuscripts and journals he had written. There has been extensive research done to write his biography, although I've read that some people don't find some of it accurate because the writings that they found in his apartment were disjointed, disorganized, and had no real story to them. I feel bad fo Henry. His figures show the depth of sadness and disturbance inside of him. Although this may make for interesting art, I would rather that he was able to be loved and get help in his life over having some art to look at.

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