Extraordinary!

Thomas Roeske

ISBN 10: 3858816043 / ISBN 13: 9783858816047

Published by Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag, CH, 2018

About this Item

Public interest in art created by people suffering from mental illnesses has been growing in recent years, while the topic is still relatively exotic in the academic world. In a unique research project at Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, art works produced around 1900 by patients in mental asylums and hospitals in Switzerland have been recorded, documented, and examined. Their authors worked on many of them for long periods, always with dedication, and often revealing remarkable technical and artistic prowess. They saw their art as a contribution to public life, as their own invention and expression of their ideas, but also as an act to compensate for the dull life at, and criticism of, the institutions they were being treated. This field of art, and of art history, is subject to the dynamics of academic standards and, consequently, of inclusions and exclusions. This new book, featuring a manifold selection of previously unpublished art works, questions our contemporary understanding of art, making the reader revisit his or her own concept of what constitutes art and to engage with these artists and their work.

Seller Inventory # LU-9783858816047

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Extraordinary!
• Publisher: Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag, CH
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3858816043
• ISBN 13: 9783858816047
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

There has been a rapid rise in interest in recent years in art created by people suffering from mental illness, with new museums dedicated to it, major surveys, and attention from the media and public. Yet there has been little research undertaken to systematically examine this body of art. 
          
Extraordinary! presents the results of an exceptional research project undertaken at the Zurich University of the Arts that documented and examined art produced in asylums and mental hospitals throughout Switzerland around 1900. Varied in style and media, the works often mark long periods of dedicated and passionate work and reveal remarkable technical and artistic prowess. They serve, the editors show, as both an expression of their creators’ ideas and an act of compensation for—and a criticism of—the dull and often hard life at the institutions they trod.

Featuring a diverse selection of previously unpublished works, Extraordinary! questions our contemporary understanding of art, encouraging the reader to engage with these artists and their work and thereby revisit the very idea of what constitutes art.
 

About the Authors

Helen Hirsch is an art historian and director of Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland.

Katrin Luchsinger is an art historian and freelance publicist and curator working on topics such as art and psychology, material cultures, and inclusion. She was formerly professor at the Zurich University of the Arts’ Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts, where she directed various research projects on art and creativity in psychiatric institutions around 1900.