Henry Darger and The Fine Line Between Insanity and Brilliance
Last Wednesday night our movie group watched the documentary film In The Realm of The Unreal, directed by Jessica Yu. In brief, the film documents the incredible story of Henry Darger (1892-1973), a visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.
Darger’s story takes place in the Chicago area and tracks his life beginning with his turbulent childhood. The film touches on the painful death of his mother and father when he was at an early age, then mental and physical abuse he suffered which was inflicted by adults and other children, and his eventual diagnosis and institutionalization at an a asylum for “feeble minded” children.
Darger eventually escaped the asylum around age 16 and walked from Lincoln, IL back to Chicago. With the help of his Godmother, he is able gain menial employment at a Catholic hospital which allowed him to support himself for years until he reached old age.
Despite his menial job and lonely life, Darger’s routine outside of work was rather sensational. Spending all of his free hours alone, “he whiled away the hours working on a 15,000 page illustrated novel called The Realms of the Unreal. A stunning amalgam of religious imagery, fantasy, and heroic drama, the work was only discovered after Darger was moved to a hospital during the last days of his life.” (IMBD)
The people who knew Darger the best (his neighbors, co-workers etc.) described his behavior as strange, reclusive and child like in many ways. But although the people around him would admit to the fact that Darger seemed to be in “complete control of his life,” they nonetheless intuitively sensed in him some form of mental illness. For me, this characteristic is hard to deny and is made quite evident in the documentary through veracious readings of his intimate journals and autobiography which he also left behind after his death.
This brings me to the thought I wish to explore: Is there a fine line between insanity and genius? Or do we on occasion, mistake one for the other?
Exceptional Art vs. Alluring Art
In order to proceed, I feel it would be fitting to give a brief, personal summary of my aesthetic, which would help explain why and how I place/order art and how I evaluate its purpose and place in society.
I’ll preface by saying that I am not one to label something as not being Art. I’m fully open to all ways, types, modes, flavors and functions of art. To me, Just about anything can be art (I guess I’m fairly Dadaist in that sense). However, when I think about Art, I do feel an impulse to discern and distinguish between certain characteristics. Perhaps against popular norms, I do want to leave room for what I call “Exceptional Art,” a term that I strongly contrast with “Alluring Art.”
Exceptional Art is art that I reserve the term “genius” for. Some characteristics of Exceptional Art would include (but are not limited to): The ability to have layer upon layer of deep meaning depicted in one piece, unmatched artistic technique or ability, and perhaps most important, the aptitude of a piece to speak to or provoke personal transformation and/or social change toward goodness, truth, unity or wholeness. Exceptional Art is art that is not only appreciated for its aesthetic beauty, but also for the thoughtfulness behind the work, the message (or what the piece communicates), and the prophetic ability of the piece to transform the viewer in a profound way. To quote Ernst Fischer:
“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.”
Conversely, Alluring Art would be placed at the opposite end of the spectrum. To be brief, this is art that, if nothing else, can be appreciated for its attempt at personal expression, and perhaps its aesthetic qualities (e.g. color, line, composition). Alluring Art is art that would fall under scrutiny for actually being called “Art” (think of the Dogs Playing Poker painting in your Grandmother’s garage).
I do not make these distinctions to label one form of art as being bad and the other as being good. Quite the contrary, Alluring Art can be quite good and greatly appreciated (your Grandmother loved those cute dogs!). What I am saying is that one form of art (Exceptional Art) is more important than the other. It serves a higher function and has a deeper dimension coupled with more purposeful meaning and complexity which is contained within the work itself.
Henry Darger’s Art
On occasion I do encounter art work that is extremely difficult to categorize as Exceptional Art. This brings me back to my thoughts about Henry Darger’s work. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary about his life–I was captivated by the film–I now understand what was stopping me from categorising his work as being Exceptional Art. It has to do with the saying that “there is a fine line between insanity and brilliance.” I am convinced that we actually get the two terms confused.
When I saw the film, and was faced with the sheer volume of written works Henry Darger produced, I was initially shocked. The paintings shown in the film were also surprisingly good, both in composition and color. I was truthfully enthralled at the possibility that this was a masterful writer and illustrator whose work had remained hidden all of this time. It was the subject of his work, however, that raised red flags for me. I’ve now determined that something about what Darger was saying in his bizare work (consciously or subconsciously) was the unknown variable that prevented me from labeling his work as being “genius.”
I believe what happens, often times, when we see work from people like Darger or Daniel Johnston for instance (the subject of another film we watched in our movie group), work that is so unique and outrageously unbridled in its creativity, we immediately want to label it “genius.” I know I do. If fact, I wonder if these two guys even would be considered as subjects for a documentary film if certain people didn’t think this was the case?
Yes Darger’s art (his writing and painting) is brilliant in the sense that it’s painstakingly novel, unique and can be greatly appreciated by many people for its beauty. However, I now feel strongly that what I and other people seem to be responding to in work like this is not the artist’s brilliance coming through but his sickness.
If this is the case, if what we see in Darger’s work is not brilliance but sickness being displayed, then the question remains: Why do we find the work of a person who is obviously sick so fascinating that we impulsively want to label it brilliant? I think what happens with art like this, art that is so uninhibited, is that it is so rare to find work this honest and original that when we do find it we are quick to confuse it with Exceptional Art, which coincidentally, also happen to be uninhibited, hard to find and completely honest and original. The difference, for me, is the subjective message and thought behind the work.
Darger’s work certainly has a message, a strong message in fact. Through his autobiography and his 15,000 page manuscript it’s revealed that he has a deep love for children, and a strong desire for them to be protected from those who would attempt hurt them. However, when his life is put into perspective, as the documentary does so well, it’s plain to see that Darger’s art functions more or less as a form of physco therapy for a trauma that he ultimately suffered and wrestled with his entire life. His art became a means of therapy (as it is for so many) for him to express an injustice which was done to him, one that he unfortunately never seemed able to overcome.
The world Henry Darger created provided an escape from the reality of pain and hurt in which we all live, but must inevitably face at some point to find true life. To reference Ernst Fischer once again, there is no doubt that Derger’s art does a fine job of reflecting the decay of society (and life), but it is my opinion that it does not help to change it. The latter step is the distinguishing, tenaciously difficult step that all Exceptional Art must take. Darger’s work stops short of this mark. Sadly then, what comes through is not brilliance but sickness. This is of course is beautiful in its own way and does make for great art, but for me this is exactly the fine line that does exist between insanity and brilliance.
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