henry darger

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I'd like to read the vivian girls adventures book, but 1. it is not yet and will probably never be published 2. it consist of 15.000 pages so it will take decades to read.

what abt the pictures, mere illustrations of an eccentrics mind or beautiful fascinating visions?

no 'but is it art' answers, new ones please

― erik, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There was just a Darger exhibition at the Folk Art museum in NY, which owns a lot of the Darger material. It was great. Next to the pictures, most long scrolls, they included the text that matched the work. There is a book published similiar to this which is about half artwork and half related text from Darger, I think if you read this you will get enough of Darger's literary output. I too at one time wanter to read Darger, but after sitting with this book in a bookstore for a while was sufficiently sated. If, after reading this, you are still up for more, maybe you could arrange with the museum in NY to view more of the unpublished writings. There is also a book of poetry by John Ashberry inspired by Darger's Vivian girls, could be an interesting read for you. I'd definitely try to check out the works in a museum, you can really see more than in the reproductions his technique, tracings, water colors, etc.

― Mary, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i loved how he did penises on the girls because he didnt know girls didn't have penises because he'd never seen a naked girl!

― unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a gd selection of Darger stuff in 'Raw Vol 2:2', if you can find that anywhere...

― Andrew L, Sunday, 11 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.shiseido.co.jp/s9609gas/img/hd/gas000hd.jpg
http://www.hammergallery.com/Artists/darger/Darger_image_1_small.jpg
http://www.outsiderart.co.uk/Thumbnails-124x160/darger1.jpg

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 03:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I have that ashbery book but I have yet to read it cuz I'm stupid

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 03:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw a large work of his in Chicago not long ago. I found it too disturbing to contemplate for long.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

of the two or three artbooks available, I recommend the one by Michael Bonesteel. The excerpts are presented in an extremely coherent order. The MacGregor book is a mess.

― milton (Jon L), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 06:31 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.tssplaza.co.jp/~visual/k/darger/darger.files/Darger%20bibliography.files/CHICAGO%20EXHISIBITION.gif
http://www.wpr.org/book/images/darger.jpg
http://www.hammergallery.com/Artists/darger/NL_245a_small.JPG

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Truly alarming. I saw an exhib in Tokyo at the beginnning of the year and was very freaked out, both by the content and the biog.

― Daniel (dancity), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

W00den Wand is working on an album of Songs For Henry Darger

the nyc exhibit is life-changing. i got chills

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Thursday, 30 December 2004 03:46 (twenty years ago)

The movie looks promising.

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 December 2004 04:10 (twenty years ago)

how did it change your life, roger?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 30 December 2004 04:14 (twenty years ago)

um...

whenever anyone says something "changed their life," my first question is "how?"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:07 (twenty years ago)

I remember the NY Times did a story on Darger, maybe pretty soon after his works were found? I cut it out and hung it on the wall, and it was there long enough to get yellowed, and I moved out of that house in '99, so I wanna date the article to '98 at least. I finally did see some of his works in person in Chicago, but I forget when, I think it was around '99 but I don't know. Does the power in his work lie more in the ideas and visuals, or the invocation of the process and the artist?

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:54 (twenty years ago)

I checked my memory with the NYT archives, the article is even older:
WEEKEND DESK | January 24, 1997, Friday
A Life's Work in Word and Image, Secret Until Death
By HOLLAND COTTER (NYT) Review 1092 words

Here is a recent story on a film about Darger:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03EEDD1030F931A15751C1A9629C8B63

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:55 (twenty years ago)

oh, for some reason the article I taped to my wall is available, usually you have to pay: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E1DE173AF937A15752C0A961958260

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 30 December 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago)

the movie was great

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago)

i have a problem with how darger is viewed, by taking him out of context, we aestheise him, and destroy any of the narrative and sexuality that was central to his (texts?)

esp. in the essays for the american folk art musuem catalog--but this is my problem with the american folk art musuem in general.

darger is really quite fantastic, though.

― anthony, Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago)

>i loved how he did penises on the girls because he didnt know girls didn't have penises because he'd never seen a naked girl!<

That's just a theory.

Saw the doc and liked it, but that's about as much as I want to know about him. Is everyone else glad he wasn't an adoptive parent?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:32 (twenty years ago)

that's an unlikely scenario!

where did he live in chicago, exactly?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:36 (twenty years ago)

(xpost) I liked the documentary, too. I was sad to learn the room he lived in was "dismantled" in 2000. Should've been turned into some sort of landmark, I think, but I'm just a sucker for odd genius. Though, yeah, I'm also relieved he didn't adopt.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 30 December 2004 23:06 (twenty years ago)

this thread has changed my life.

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 December 2004 23:16 (twenty years ago)

RIP

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 December 2004 23:17 (twenty years ago)

my first exposure to him was the packaging for Crash Worship's "Triple Mania II" which came out in 1994 -- the cover is inspired by Darger, but there's an actual Darger print on the xeroxed insert.

the storm of interest in Darger has been gathering for a decade, but mainstream interest has been slow in coming because, well, it's fairly disturbing stuff on nearly every level. taking in that ny exhibit, many of those sketches caused involuntary shudders. but it's not all grim, some of it also is incredibly beautiful, happy and uplifting, there's a lot there to take in.

a curator friend of mine rolls his eyes whenever he comes up, and has many valid reasons for cynicism; I don't think he's wrong to identify a fair deal of raw greed in the recent push; he's an art dealer's dream, being absurdly prolific. there are hundreds of scribbled pencil sketches & collages now marketable & saleable as 'original Dargers', so the incentive is there for floating hype. but the work is incredible, that new york exhibit ripped me open...

looking forward to seeing the documentary.

― (Jon L), Thursday, 30 December 2004 23:41 (twenty years ago)

dean, you expend a lot of energy remembering what things are supposed to bother me and then doing them. it's a shame i don't have a ponytail you can pull...

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 31 December 2004 01:53 (twenty years ago)

the art-collector thing sort of grosses me out, condering the conditions in which darger lived all his life and under which the art was made.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 31 December 2004 01:54 (twenty years ago)

yup. they obliterate the point. what's to do.

Rizzoli is just as, perhaps even more interesting.

http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/a_g_rizzoli.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810942933/ref=ase_mexicfaqbiogrpro/002-6864239-6508064

― (Jon L), Friday, 31 December 2004 02:13 (twenty years ago)

documentary at the UCLA Hammer Museum on Wednesday (1/5): http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/programs/26/

― youn, Friday, 31 December 2004 02:15 (twenty years ago)

his apartment was on Webster Street, I don't know the exact address.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 31 December 2004 02:39 (twenty years ago)

The Ashbery book, "Girls on the Run", is the only one of his that I've read and really enjoyed, apart from sections of "The Tennis Court Oath".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 December 2004 02:51 (twenty years ago)

dean, you expend a lot of energy remembering what things are supposed to bother me and then doing them. it's a shame i don't have a ponytail you can pull..

amateurist, you expend a lot of energy assuming that you are the audience for everything that i say

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Friday, 31 December 2004 06:21 (twenty years ago)

i still love you though boo

― I'm serious ... Ti-i-i-i-im (deangulberry), Friday, 31 December 2004 06:22 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

I saw the movie tonight. I don't know if it really disturbed me. It was kind of sad and oddly inspirational. The guy that used to run the filing department at my dad's office clearly had some darger-esque tendencies. he wrote hymns at home on an old casio but was eventually fired for walking through the tax department in shorts made of cardboard.

― a real live British pub hooligan (nordicskilla), Sunday, 26 June 2005 05:13 (twenty years ago)

Were they 3D cardboard shorts that covered everything or were they a 2D cardboard representation of shorts?

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Sunday, 26 June 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

I believe that they were 3d.

― a real live British pub hooligan (nordicskilla), Sunday, 26 June 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

The movie was terminally dippy. I deeply regret that it was my first exposure to Darger's "work."

― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Sunday, 26 June 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

why is work in scare quotes?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

because whatever I saw in the doc was cornily animated... so I don't really think of it as his real work

― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

ok.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

but, yeah, the word "work" itself is pretty suspect when used to refer to an artist's, um, art... and throwing in this particular artist's neurological wiring, I might as well call it his "utilities" or something.

― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

plus

scarequotes and needlessly-hyphenated words : me :: emoticons : Ned R.

― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

i called my best friend Lance the other night and the first thing he said was: "scott, i was just thinking about you. i watched that henry darger movie today." i couldn't tell if this was a good or a bad thing.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 26 June 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I was reading a book the other day, and it casually compared someone to Henry Darger, without any explanation as to who Darger was. Has he become a household name?

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 11:30 (seventeen years ago)

Bigger than Harvey Danger.

― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 12:21 (seventeen years ago)

DV; maybe it depends on your household?

― suzy, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 12:37 (seventeen years ago)

It was in a book about comics. I suppose maybe because Henry Darger's work features both words and pictures it is likely that all people interested in comics would know who he is.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 12 March 2008 14:23 (seventeen years ago)

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