Art of the Insane: Selected Works from the Prinzhorn Collection

14 March–21 April 1985

Throughout his career, Dr. Hans Prinzhorn of the University of Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic collected artworks created by institutionalized patients at the turn of the 20th century in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. These works greatly influenced the psychiatric perception of mental illness as well as European avant¬–garde art. Most of the artworks were made by schizophrenic patients whose mental debilitation usually resulted in an expressive yet obsessive detailed style. It is important to note that these artworks were not the result of therapy sessions. Rather, they were voluntary undertakings often made from found objects such as wood, tissue, and paper bags. This exhibition of nearly 300 pieces of Dr. Prinzhorn’s collection was organized by the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign. Following its presentation at the Smart, the exhibition will travel to the Cornell University Art Museum. A symposium accompanied the exhibition, including such speakers as Rudolph Arnheim, Professor of the Psychology of Art, Harvard University; Reinhold Heller, Acting Director of the Smart Museum of Art and Chairman of the Department of Art, University of Chicago; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Education, University of Chicago; John Gedo, Supervising and Training Analyst, the Institute for Psychoanalysis; Winfried Kudszus, Professor of German, University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Harry Trosman, Professor of Psychiatry, the University of Chicago.

The project was funded in part by the Goethe-Institute of Chicago.

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