The rebirth of the Prinzhorn Collection
In 1955, the Prinzhorn Collection was recovered during the reconstruction of the university clinic in Heidelberg. Eight years later, Harald Szeemann, the Swiss art historian and curator, came to Heidelberg to borrow 255 works of art for his exhibition Bildnerei der Geisteskranken - Art Brut - Insania Pingens (Artistry of the Mentally Ill – Art Brut – Insania Pingens), which took place in Kunsthalle in Bern. He focused on the works of Oskar Herzberg, August Klett, Else Blankenhorn, Heinrich Hack, Heinrich Anton Müller and Johann Knopf. (This selection also became the starting point for the current display in The Stone Bell House).
The contributions in the catalogue of the exhibition in Bern, like the reactions of reviewers, often concentrated on the psycho-pathological features in the works of art of the mentally ill and separated them from so-called “professional” art. Nevertheless, Harald Szeemann’s approach definitively highlighted the aesthetic merits of their works.
Szeemann thus concurred with Dubuffet's opinion that art could only be divided into art that has something to say and the rest - not into the category of people suffering from indigestion or knee pains or with diagnosed psychiatric conditions. That is why this event can be regarded as the rebirth of the Prinzhorn Collection.
art brut from the legendary
collection of German psychiatrist
6. 2. - 3. 5. 2009
City Gallery Prague,
Stone Bell House
Old town square
Prague 1
Open:
Tue – Sun.
10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
