SHARING WITH ME

No title 1999  There was an new installation at the MAM so after having seen the Darger  (see following chapter) I wandered off to the permanent collection. I peeped into the Up-dated contemporary section - and left. So many of these installations seem to express violence or something rebellious coming out of the artist’s fantasy or reality, as you wish. 

In the permanent collection there was a small room dedicated to a Anne-Marie Schneider. I had read this on her site before looking at her work. What was said seemed interesting. I was disappointed though as I could not relate this to the work in front of me. Since the early 1990’s, Anne-Marie Schneider has developed her unique style which goes almost against common trends. Drawing is essential for her as it enables her to comment on the hazards of her daily life. But this process, close to that of a diary, is sublimated in her art. All the emotions and sensations are subjected to the work of the unconsc...

Anne texted me not so long ago saying that she was a the "Henry Darger exhibition". I couldn’t for the life of me work out why the name rang such a strong bell. I certainly didn’t know the artist - or didn’t think I did. I discovered that he was on my exhibition list which I complete once a month with updates from the many art reviews I receive. I could add here that there is very little I was to see at the moment, which is a bit frustrating. Henry Darger (1892-1973)had what I suppose could be described as a rather sad life. His Mother died when he was a very young boy. Although his father was a kind man, when he died too, Henry was sent to an asylum as he was thought to be a simpleton. Later he escaped and came back to Chicago where he was born and and lived off small incomes which came from odd jobs in hospitals. 

As with so many of these artists, his work was discovered after he died. In actual fact it was a photographer who discovered his work. In secret, he had writt...