Prinzhorn Collection

The Prinzhorn Collection is a German collection of art made by mental health patients, housed at the Heidelberg University Hospital.[1] The collection comprises over 20,000 works, including works by Emma Hauck, Agnes Richter and August Natterer.[1][2][3]

History

The collection was founded by the psychiatrist Karl Wilmanns and his assistant, doctor Hans Prinzhorn, in the early 1920s.[1][4] Between 1919 and 1921 the pair visited mental hospitals across Germany, initially collecting over 5000 works.[4][5][2] As of 2016, the collection held over 20,000 works.[5] Prinzhorn, a physician and art historian, was engaged by the hospital in 1919 specifically to improve and expand the collection.[6]

Works from the collection were included in Entartete Kunst, the famous 1937 Nazi exhibition of 'degenerate' art.[6] Following the war, the collection, largely neglected, was stored in the attic of the hospital.[6] In 1973 a conservation effort was undertaken that led to the restoration and cataloguing of the collection.[6]

The collection was influential on the practice of the artist Jean Dubuffet, who visited it in 1950.[7] Writing to Henri Matisse, Dubuffet described it as "something I have dreamt of for years".[8]

In 2001 the collection was opened to the public as the Sammlung Prinzhorn Museum.[9]

References

  1. Hauschild, Jana (November 28, 2013). "Psychiatric Breakthrough: When Illness Inspires Great Art" via Spiegel Online.
  2. Röske, T. (September 26, 2014). "Agnes Richter's jacket". Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 23 (3): 227–229. doi:10.1017/S2045796014000298 via Cambridge Core.
  3. Foster, Hal (December 27, 2004). "Prosthetic Gods". MIT Press via Google Books.
  4. "Prinzhorn Collection of Art by Mental Patients". artnet News. April 29, 2015.
  5. "A window on the mind: Heidelberg hospital displays art of the mentally ill". Stars and Stripes.
  6. Arlt, Herbert; Daviau, Donald G. (May 2, 2009). "LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS – Volume I". EOLSS Publications via Google Books.
  7. "Sammlung Prinzhorn -Dubuffet's list". prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de.
  8. Zadeh, Chris Bethel,Joe (February 28, 2019). "A Journey Into the Radical Art of Brain Injury Survivors".
  9. Jones, Karen; Koh, Eugen; Veis, Nurin; White, Anthony; Hurworth, Rosalind; Bell, Johanna; Shrimpton, Brad; Fitzpatrick, Anthony (November 26, 2010). "Framing Marginalised Art". UoM Custom Book Centre via Google Books.

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