Prinzhorn Collection

The Prinzhorn Collection is a German collection of art made by mental health patients, housed at the Heidelberg University Hospital.[1] The collection comprises over 20,000 works, including works by Emma Hauck, Agnes Richter and August Natterer.[1][2][3]

History

The collection was founded by the psychiatrist Karl Wilmanns and his assistant, doctor Hans Prinzhorn, in the early 1920s.[1][4] Between 1919 and 1921 the pair visited mental hospitals across Germany, initially collecting over 5000 works.[4][5][2] As of 2016, the collection held over 20,000 works.[5] Prinzhorn, a physician and art historian, was engaged by the hospital in 1919 specifically to improve and expand the collection.[6]

Works from the collection were included in Entartete Kunst, the famous 1937 Nazi exhibition of 'degenerate' art.[6] Following the war, the collection, largely neglected, was stored in the attic of the hospital.[6] In 1973 a conservation effort was undertaken that led to the restoration and cataloguing of the collection.[6]

The collection was influential on the practice of the artist Jean Dubuffet, who visited it in 1950.[7] Writing to Henri Matisse, Dubuffet described it as "something I have dreamt of for years".[8]

In 2001 the collection was opened to the public as the Sammlung Prinzhorn Museum.[9]

References
  1. Hauschild, Jana (November 28, 2013). "Psychiatric Breakthrough: When Illness Inspires Great Art" – via Spiegel Online.
  2. Röske, T. (September 26, 2014). "Agnes Richter's jacket". Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 23 (3): 227–229. doi:10.1017/S2045796014000298 – via Cambridge Core.
  3. Foster, Hal (December 27, 2004). "Prosthetic Gods". MIT Press – via Google Books.
  4. "Prinzhorn Collection of Art by Mental Patients". artnet News. April 29, 2015.
  5. "A window on the mind: Heidelberg hospital displays art of the mentally ill". Stars and Stripes.
  6. Arlt, Herbert; Daviau, Donald G. (May 2, 2009). "LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS – Volume I". EOLSS Publications – via Google Books.
  7. "Sammlung Prinzhorn -Dubuffet's list". prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de.
  8. Zadeh, Chris Bethel,Joe (February 28, 2019). "A Journey Into the Radical Art of Brain Injury Survivors".
  9. Jones, Karen; Koh, Eugen; Veis, Nurin; White, Anthony; Hurworth, Rosalind; Bell, Johanna; Shrimpton, Brad; Fitzpatrick, Anthony (November 26, 2010). "Framing Marginalised Art". UoM Custom Book Centre – via Google Books.

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