Drawn from the Home of Henry Darger

December 22, 2007 – March 16, 2008

For forty years, the self-taught artist Henry Darger lived and worked in a cluttered one-bedroom apartment on Chicago’s North Side.

Teeming with objects of all sorts—from balls of string and Pepto Bismol bottles to coloring books and art supplies—the room revealed Darger’s treasured collections and aesthetic sensibility. In the room, Darger cocooned himself within the imagery of his art, collecting and cataloguing the children’s books, comics, and magazines that he used to illustrate the fantastical scenes of his massive epic known as In the Realms of the Unreal.

Anchored by two double-sided collage and watercolor drawings from the Smart Museum’s collection, this exhibition also includes a selection of Darger’s source materials and art supplies as well as archival photographs of the apartment from Intuit – The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.

Together, these materials give an intimate glimpse into Darger’s working process and artistic achievements.