Henry Darger

Since his death in 1973, Henry Darger, janitor, orphan, writer and artist, has found increasing posthumous fame as an artist of influence, particularly for a generation of North American artists born in the late 60s and early 70s, such as Marcel Dzama, Justine Kurland, Justin Lieberman and Amy Cutler, who have drawn on his colossal oeuvre of drawings and writings, and his bizarre world of transgendered and often partially clothed girls warring against evil adults and monsters, in order to evolve their own worlds of similarly fantastical imagery. Several landmark Darger exhibitions and a hit documentary film (In the Realms of the Unreal) have continued to disseminate his work to wider audiences, rendering the persistent epithet of "outsider artist" almost meaningless. All Darger monographs become rarities with incredible rapidity, and this new hardcover edition of the Andrew Edlin Gallery's excellent introduction to Darger will prove no exception. It contains new and improved images, an updated introduction and updated sections on Darger's exhibition history and public collections. In an accompanying essay Edward Madrid Gómez writes: "knowing what we know about this loner's life, it seems that no one else but Darger could have produced it, in the same way that we cannot imagine the ground-breaking works of such artists as Beethoven, Picasso, Wölfli or Joyce emerging from the minds or spirits of anyone else except these geniuses, whose talents have helped define just how far-reaching and accomplished artistic creativity can be."
Henry Darger was the author of drawings, watercolor scrolls and a 15,000 page novel called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

When the reclusive American janitor Henry Darger died in 1973, he left behind an unprecedented body of drawings, scroll-like watercolors and a 15,000 page novel called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Discovered by Darger's landlord, these works--which are populated largely by trans-gendered and often partially clothed girls who war righteously against evil adults and monsters--are now universally considered some of the most important and interesting artworks by any self-taught artist in modern history.
In 2006 La Maison Rouge in Paris opened the most extensive exhibition of Darger's work ever in Europe. This second edition of the exhibition catalogue features a selection of classic works, as well as an essay by Edward Madrid Gómez, who writes, "Knowing what we know about this loner's life, it seems that no one else but Darger could have produced it, in the same way that we cannot imagine the ground-breaking works of such artists as Beethoven, Picasso, Wölfli or Joyce emerging from the minds or spirits of anyone else except these geniuses, whose talents have helped define just how far-reaching and accomplished artistic creativity can be."

Henry Darger spent his life working as a janitor in Catholic hospitals, living alone in a rented room on Chicago's north side, attending Mass up to five times a day, and writing a picaresque tale in 15 massive volumes, composed of 145 handwritten pages and 5,084 single-spaced typed pages, and titled 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. To accompany this enormous literary production, Darger also created several hundred large-scale illustrations--pencil on paper drawings painted over with watercolor and occasional additions of collage--that relate the story: on an unnamed planet, of which Earth is a moon, the good Christian nation of Anniennia wars with the Glandelinians, who practice child enslavement. The heroines are the seven Vivian sisters, Abbiennian princesses, who, after many battles, fires, tempests, and lurid torture, succeed in forcing the Glandelinians to give up their barbarous ways. The Disasters of War offers an affordable introduction to Darger's astonishing outsider oeuvre. It explains the technique, diligence and creativity of the works, illustrates details, and features a conversation between the Darger estate holder and the Kunstwerke's curator. A selection of 12 previously unpublished excerpts from The Realms of the Unreal and from Darger's diary explore the artist's favorite topics: thunderstorms and atrocities. With a biography and exhibition history.