The Peculiar Art of Henry Darger

[@Sabbathtage]

Thank you for covering one of my favorite artists. One minor correction: Henry Darger wasn't dead before his work was found. He was in a hospital and his landlord came to him and told him his work was amazing. He seemed proud and wistful and shook his head saying "Too late... It's too late...". I think he knew he made an epic but he didn't know how to share them, not for fame or recognition, but to be acknowledge for it.

[@skylinesrock666]

This is not a correction, because it's the first thing mentioned in the video.

[@thegnarledpirate9198]

It's so upsetting we can't even read his story. 15 thousand pages, imagine the amazing world he created.

[@arfnore]

I've read bits of it that were printed in an info sheet for a small exhibition I saw. Both the pictures and the stories are horrific and could never be published as they include graphic descriptionsof act of child abuse. He is clearly reliving his own trauma through the work.

[@somefuckingretard8289]

@@arfnore What was the story

[@shawnallanwebb7084]

You guys should go to Fredrik Knudsen's Channel if you wanna know more about Henry Dargers novel. It's freaky 👍

[@nicholaszaris5113]

True

[@panfluteskeleton]

Henry Darger is such an interesting character. What I would give to read the manuscript

[@grayson_sag]

he was just a good man that was dealt a bad hand. what i really love about him is not his art but his personality

[@tewellmg]

So glad Henry had access to materials, even though they were meagre. I imagine there were many artists unnamed and unknown who experienced the all too common asylums of that time. Peonage was common in religious orphanages, prisons, centers for folks with mental health issues as well as intellectual disabilities such as Willow Brook on Staten Island. I wonder how the abuse from those many state and private institutions manifested itself in other children. What an amazing story about an amazing artist and human being.

[@amitroy2996]

Glad to see you make a video on Darger. I was really pained to find out about him initially, and then slowly his world fascinated me increasingly.

[@petyashalamanova3634]

Henry Darger is a legend, a pure soul and made such such honest work. Most artist can only dream to be this real and uncorrupted.

[@magicknight13]

Yes wow so true! I love the words you said " a pure soul " and "real and uncorrupted", you said it so well

[@swordsesame1837]

Sarcasm?

[@cefrinaldi8060]

​@@swordsesame1837nah, dude telling their true opinion.

[@sudi_cloud]

Arthur Bispo do Rosário (May 14, 1909[1] or March 16, 1911 - July 5, 1989) was a Brazilian outsider artist. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he lived in a psychiatric institution in Rio de Janeiro for 50 years,[2] where he created works of art with found objects, as part of a "divine mission". His works gained recognition among art critics when they were first displayed at the Venice Biennale in 1995.

[@gabrielgian6207]

Bispo is fucking based.

[@l.5832]

I wish people who had no where to go at Christmas could make contact with each other and spend Christmas with each other. After my divorce, I also had no one to spend Christmas with. I phoned around to churches remembering how nice Christmas services were, only to be told they don't have them on Christmas Day any more, so people could spend time with their families. Same as Christmas concerts, plays, etc. Absolutely NOTHING on on Christmas Day. Not everyone has family. I feel for this man and although in 1971 I was barely becoming a teen, I would have liked to spend Christmas with him......

[@JustSaralius]

Sarah Millican started a Christmas tradition some years ago where anyone who had no one to spend Christmas with would hang out together online. It's been a huge success and I'm greatful to be alive in a world where we can connect with others online like this. It's helped me immensely when I've been isolated and not able to connect to anyone close by. I have not attended Millican's Christmas party myself but reading about it always makes me happy! Being alone on holidays is really rough.

[@sweetkitty3249]

There are others like you. The movie theaters are crowded on Christmas day.

[@laskillen]

There's a great documentary about Darger called "In the Realms of the Unreal", directed by Jessica Yu.

[@andrzejmaranda3699]

The Canvas: STUNNINGLY INTRIGUING & VERY MOTIVATING!

[@parisgreen4600]

This was fascinating. That poor guy. A lot of the pictures are beautiful, they're like colored tracings of old "Dick and Jane" type books he might have read while growing up institutionalized, but weirdly sophisticated too. The nudity was uncomfortable to me, but it seems like he used it to represent innocence. Do we know anything about his methods or materials? (looks like watercolor and colored pencil on regular paper). Did he see art books/magazines, visit an art museum or library, watch movies/TV, have a teacher or mentor at any point?

[@jaydubya3698]

My understanding is that Darger did a lot of tracing and used watercolor, colored pencil, and regular pencil as he wasn't a trained artist in any way. He lived in a tiny, cramped studio and when the work was discovered after his death, the landlord found stacks and stacks of drawings and writings. Many of the drawings take on the look of scrolls when strung together; most were damaged by water or neglect. I wouldn't bother trying to read the manuscript...I've read part of it and it's nearly incomprehensible. I mean, the guy was a lonely person and clearly mentally ill in some way, totally lost in a fantasy world, trying his best to express himself. Sometimes the work is strangely beautiful, but often it fails, just like the work of any other artist.

[@missnoneofyourbusiness]

He did have an amount of magazines and it is known that he copied and traced out of publicity from the time.

[@cefrinaldi8060]

He traced drawing from magazine, newspaper comic and other stuff. He copied several of the drawing, paste it into his drawing, and used watercolor to make background and detail.

[@parisgreen4600]

Thank you all for your answers - very interesting!

[@annaolson4828]

In terms of the nudity, it's gotten multiple interpretations, because the girls in the pictures have penises. The most likely explanation to me is Henry Darger just hadn't had any sexual encounters and only had his own genitalia to base his art off of.

[@artgeometrix6346]

This is so good. Really incredible job here.

[@magicknight13]

Absolutely astoundingly beautiful and detailed works! I love his art! Wow I never knew about Henry Darger before this video and very grateful for today :)

[@threethrushes]

The purest expression of art is to create for an idea which transcends oneself. It matters not that no one ever sees it. It is important that it was ever made.

[@morganingram3619]

Your channel is a regular part of my lectures!

[@marcyxfinn]

Glad I found this bc I’ve been trying to find this artist for a while. I listened to a whole mini doc on it previously and lost it

[@hawk0485]

That's pretty dark. Living a whole life surrounded by people and never really connecting with anyone. No love at all, no hope. It may sound flippant, but I really wonder what kept him from killing himself. Maybe it was that world he created for himself.

[@malakaibadillo4688]

Probably. I think that's what kept him going from being alone all those years..

[@SirCamera]

Fear of being damned to hell, most likely. Darger was a devout Catholic, even when he had his angry episodes with God.

[@Kizzabell]

He might have enjoyed being alone and just doing his art.

[@WobblesandBean]

@@Kizzabell He didn't enjoy it. He was a profoundly lonely man, who desperately petitioned the church to let him adopt a child. He was denied. Later he merely wanted a pet, anything to keep him company, but was also denied. It's such a tragedy.

[@l.5832]

@@WobblesandBean It should be illegal to deny single people pets.

[@covenawhite4855]

Outsider Artist 1) The Artist having no training by art teachers or art schools or art apprenticeships: called Naive Art (Natural Artist Art) 2) The artist didn't copy any contemporary art movements and was very original 3) No contact with the art establishment

[@anitareefer171]

I’m a big fan of your videos! Amazing work, please keep it up 🧡

[@gabriellef3351]

I like his sense of color

[@morgenlefay]

It’s disgusting to me that greedy corporate worlds which outsider art eschewed profit from his works after his death (mega-museums that are nothing more than malls of artifice, fashion with expensive cardigans with prints of his art)…the least they could do is donate to what he clearly cared about most which is children (and since he never had a good holiday perhaps at least donate towards his cause on the holidays)

[@AssettoOfCourse]

Fascinating. Thankyou

[@smithstoneware]

The algorithm blessed me with your page! Have you ever read about James Edward Deeds Jr.? He was an outsider artist who also suffered from child abuse. His work was made in an insane asylum that he was in nearly his entire life. He was located in Navada, MO.

[@kittykatze-vn2xf]

god I love your channel so much

[@1358Paco]

I don't know about the exact distinctions, but I personally prefer the terms "folk art" or "naive art" over "outsider art" at this point. Whenever people talk about "outsider art", it's usually accompanied by a specific neurotypical voyeuristic gaze, "look at this freak" energy.

[@letsbeannlicker2095]

Do you know anybody that wants to buy my edition of things of the unreal. I'll shout out for $400

[@chzcake44s]

So much of the language around these artists reflects a fetishization and intense othering that I find to be ironic. They want to embrace the art they previously neglected, while still viewing the artists who created it as freaks to be gawked at. If you want to welcome this art back into society, why not use language that enfranchises the disabled and mentally ill people who created it, rather than insisting we are still outsiders? For this reason I much prefer to call it art brut.

[@morgenlefay]

Outsider is not a term to be ashamed of i actually see “folk” and “naive” as more offensive or insufficient…folk can be confused with indigenous and naive seems inadequate. Being outside of a sick world is actually…a compliment. “Outside of”…that bollocks. But naive and folk speaks too much to class (“folk” implies uneducated) or mental capacity (naive) rather than volitional social alienation (outsider). Misfit art could be another description…art brut implies something like brutalism and like its trying to be fancy like a freakin’ champagne (a term a mega-museum would come up with to frame the art in a “palatable” manner to art snobs that outsider artists never cared to consider in their motivations)

[@HAL-xy3om]

Touching story, thank you.

[@meb1982]

This is incredibly depressing and sad, I am sorry he had to go through that. On a lighter note this feels like Wes Anderson.

[@mahdi5796]

Very interesting. I'm going to read more about him

[@letsbeannlicker2095]

You want to buy the book I have it $400 is worth two to three thousand they say

[@cefrinaldi8060]

Poor man, Darger is one of my most fav artist but i pity his life. The man had deal many bad things. And he sound like someone that love kids, probably because he cant have a kids, and in extension a family, he tried to protect the fictional kids he create. His drawing and story really felt like darger reliving his childhood and he tried to save his child self through the drawing. Many said that he is pedophilic but i dont think thats the case since his artwork wasnt sexual but rather gruesome, endearing and disquieting.

[@alarcon99]

My first impression is that he never saw female genitalia. I don’t mean it as derision but rather it fills me with a sense of innocence and sadness.

[@metropunklitan]

jesus christ thats haunting, the guys must be very isolated, i mean, just the fact that no one knew a thing about him

[@pendafen7405]

You think the greatest tragedy of his harrowing life is that he never saw or touched real p***y....come on, man, this story's deeper than that.

[@sourgreendolly7685]

For anyone looking for a more in depth video, I highly recommend Fredrik Knudsen’s Down the Rabbit Hole video on him.

[@sweetsilence5642]

makes me think that he would not be so happy about his art being spread without his permission. looks like he did not want to share his art and now its avaliable to anyone

[@WobblesandBean]

I'm not so sure. When his landlord visited him in hospice to talk about the manuscript and how he should have published it, he seemed genuinely surprised, then his face fell and he said "oh well. Too late now." I don't think it's that he didn't want it to be seen, just that he never thought anyone else would WANT to see it.

[@adlibruj]

Another Soul that comes into this planet and, finding its darkness , tries to supplanted with its Inner Light!

[@TheMightyPika]

Art Brut is pretty much the only art i like anymore. All my favorite works are usually the artists's early stuff. Once they enter the main or side stream everything polishes and the urgency to communicate is lost, and my interest in hearing their voice wanes. I want to hear a voice that only that person can make, not something tailored for marketing.

[@l.5832]

Same with music.

[@MANGLORIOUS]

I read the title as Henry Danger… as in that one Nickelodeon sitcom starring Jace Norman..

[@DeusVult838]

me too haha

[@rattis]

@@DeusVult838 With me its the opposite: Whenever I flip channels and Henry Danger is on I read it as Henry Darger. XD

[@ashish5675]

Liked subscribed shared👍

[@booksvsmovies]

Why did I think this would be a video about Henry Danger

[@Sandra-hc4vo]

Wow very interesting

[@JohnnyAmbidextrous]

Don't put text over the art. We want to see the art.

[@iwannabeyourdog4195]

wow so he basically had the same thoughts that Dostoevsky gave to his character Ivan Karamazov about God and child abuse

[@cicada9780]

Yorushika brought me here.

[@gmodstarstruct2815]

really thought this was an arthouse video essay about the Nickelodeon show Henry danger

[@rodrigorafael.9645]

This is such a tragedy, this man coud, just have lived such a better live... is so sad.

[@ninosawbrzostowiecki1892]

Luckily his landlord was into the arts, as otherwise it would have been thrown out as garbage. It almost was, as the wife of the landlord wanted to throw it away.

[@HenryCasillas]

☮️

[@Rockopolis]

My dumbass thought the title said Henry Danger

[@NY_Mountain_Man]

I... understand Darger. However, given my own traumas and what I fight for on a daily basis, I can't really vibe with him. Like, I'd rather do a lot more youtube inappropriate things to the abuser(s) than appreciate art made by one of their victims. If anything, Darger shows all of us just how evil child abuse actually is.

[@atlassolid5946]

people praise Darger's art, yet heavily criticize art from a more public figure, say, Chris-Chan. honestly, there's a lot of parallels here. bizarre artwork that reflects the artist's life, emotions, and frustrations, to the point of including themselves and people they knew in the drawings as central figures. troubled childhood that led them to isolate themselves from the outside world and create a world for themselves. even the idea of their mental illnesses influencing their artstyle and conduct.

[@testest12344]

To be fair, Chris chan's art isnt nearly as interesting. His compositions are comparatively weak, darger has an almost ukiyo-e aesthetic which looks much better than Chris chan's work, and his story and world, though not exactly a literary masterpiece, is unique and interesting, whereas Chris chan is just a much more naked power/sexual fantasy

[@atlassolid5946]

@@testest12344 i agree with you on the story differences, but i cant say darger's art is any more interesting to me than chris-chan's is. plus, if i want an ukiyo-e aesthetic, i can just look at ukiyo-e art

[@testest12344]

@@atlassolid5946 Well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree there, I find Darger's art to be much more aesthetically appealing, (and I think it's hard to deny that his compositions and aesthetic predilections much better fit the mold of what is considered conventionally 'good' than Chris chan's). And the flat linework and coloring paired with his unique setting creates a different vibe from traditional ukiyo-e stuff imo.

[@atlassolid5946]

@@testest12344 eh, not gonna disagree that it took some real skill on darger's part. it just doesnt do much for me, is all

[@testest12344]

@@atlassolid5946 That's cool, different strokes and all that.

[@dakinayantv3245]

Outsider art is more interesting than so called established art.

[@fountedakis]

A shitposter without internet

[@scrambled5948]

Wow, I can’t believe they made a Nickelodeon show based on this guy

[@quailcore6127]

So… Sonichu without the internet.

[@claudemadrid4950]

Thank you, I did not know Henry Darger and his art that seems to be very good according to me... I love Jean Dubuffet who's one of my favorite artists of the 20th century... I also like "Art Brut"... but, nevertheless, though I am a self-taught artist, I don't consider myself as an artist from "Art Brut"... and I prefer the term "Art Singulier" ("Singular Art") because it also includes artists who don't have mental problems but are following their own path through art, away from the "art scene" that I consider as badly as Eugène Delacroix used to 😀... and I consider myself as much more clever than the usual hypocrit morons from the official "art scene" 😀... because I am 😀... and always will be until these conformist morons who are all doing the same things will start to learn from me 😀... If you think I am pretentious or megalomaniac, come on, try to debate with me 😀... I'm definitely not waiting for you, I have a lot of other things to do... but I am ready to deconstruct all the BS that you were told and that you repeat 😀 (it's an impersonal "you", I'm not specially speaking to you, Shawn 😀, I'm speaking to anybody who would think that I would be "pretentious" or "megalomaniac" and would feel clever enough to prove it in an intellectual debate😀)... Usually, there's nobody... but, in the rare case when people have tried it once... they have never tried it again afterwards. 😀

[@Johnconno]

There's no such thing as 'Outsider Art' anymore, maybe there never was.

[@Ziad3195]

Why do you think so? Because you are wrong.

[@covenawhite4855]

Outsider Artist 1) The Artist having no training by art teachers or art schools or art apprenticeships: called Naive Art (Natural Artist Art) 2) The artist didn't copy any contemporary art movements and was very original 3) No contact with the art establishment