Outsider Artist: Henry Darger In the Realms of the Unreal, directed by Jessica Yu.
By day, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor
who had few -- if any -- friends. But at night, he became a literary
artist with a unique vision. Darger's 15,000-page novel is a wonderland
of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who
lead a rebellion against child-enslaving men.
I always wonder about these mad geniuses, compelled to create with
no audience. Is their work simply the mindless spewing of a person with
a serious mental illness who happens to have a good eye? Or is their
productivity what staves off a descent into real insanity? Jumping to
conclusions about someone's mental illness seems dangerous. Henry
Darger went to work every day of his life till he retired at 73. His
art work seems like a grand compensatory endeavor for loneliness and
poverty.
If you want to learn more about Henry Darger and see some of his drawings, Sara Ayers has a beautiful page on him.
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