MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Hans Prinzhorn, Bildnerei der Geisteskranken: ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und Psychopathologie der Gestaltung (Artistry of the Mentally Ill: A Contribution to The Psychology and Psychopathology of Configuration), 1923
Published by Verlag von Julius Springer
First edition, second printing
Courtesy of Erik Thys

Bildnerei der Geisteskranken: ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und Psychopathologie der Gestaltung was first published in 1922 by German art historian and psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn (1886–1933). The first in-depth analysis of works of the mentally ill from both psychological and aesthetical points, the book is based on the core of the original collection at the University Hospital of Heidelberg where Prinzhorn worked as assistant physician. The collection ranges from drawings, watercolours, paintings and sculptures to textile works and texts. Concerned with the border between the art and self-expression of psychiatric patients, Prinzhorn’s richly illustrated study was received enthusiastically by the art scene of his time, especially the Surrealists. More reserved were the reactions of his colleagues. In 1938, five years after Prinzhorn’s death, Carl Schneider, then Head of the University Hospital of Heidelberg and a prominent member of the Nazi party, sent the works from the collections to be displayed in the touring Entartete Kunst exhibition as a reference for the ‘degenerate’ nature of Modern art. The interest in Prinzhorn’s Bildnerei der Geisteskranken was rekindled after the end of the Second World War. Inspired by the publication, renowned French artist Jean Dubuffet started his own collection of such art, which he described as art brut (known in English as ‘outsider art’).