Henry Darger: Disasters Of War

by Kiyoko Lerner (Contributor), Henry Darger (Artist), Klaus Biesenbach (Editor)

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 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 A selection of 12 previously unpublished excerpts from The Realms of the Unreal and from Darger's diary explore the artist's favorite thunderstorms and atrocities. With a biography and exhibition history.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

213 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2004

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

glorious book. for darger enthusiasts, look into adolf wolfli. he was a mental patient in the early 1900s who wrote/illustrated/composed music for his epic semi-autobiography. he played the music on a paper trumpet, you can't go wrong.

[latner3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atrocity and beauty in art. Insane fantasies.Documentations of terror.If Goya and Collodi had a child this would be it.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book allows you to see the details of his paintings and collage work. It is mind-bending to study his work. The devil is in the details they say, and it really shows up in this particular volume

[Otto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Darger was great at color scheme and had very creative and surreal pictures, but his pencil drawing leaves a lot to be desired. But the dude never showed his work to anybody and it was found after he died, so who am I to judge him?