Synopses & Reviews
Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal is a generously illustrated book that represents the culmination of more than a decade of research into the enigmatic artist's life and work by world renowned outsider art expert John MacGregor. The long awaited monograph is MacGregors first English-language publication on Henry Darger and the most comprehensive critical investigation of Dargers writings and illustrations available in any language.
Henry Darger was born in Chicago in 1892. Shortly before his death in 1973, his landlord, Chicago artist Nathan Lerner, made a startling discovery in his tenants room: the history of another world in fifteen volumes, In the Realms of the Unreal at 15,145 type-written pages, possibly the longest work of fiction ever written. In startlingly vivid detail, Dargers Realms recounted the role of seven sisters, known as the Vivian Girls, in a violent conflict over child enslavement on an unnamed planet. Amidst the refuse, Lerner also found three huge bound volumes of brightly colored illustrations for the work, many painted on both sides and some over twelve feet in length. In the decades since his death, Dargers alternate universe has attracted the intense interest of collectors, critics, and scholars around the world. His illustrations and writings have been the subject of major museum exhibitions in Europe and North America.
Review
"A book that is part academic magnum opus and part mystery thriller." San Jose Mercury News
Review
"Henry Darger is an improbable, wrist-wrecking page turner, and John MacGregor is, in a profound sense, a mystery writer." Village Voice
Review
"[A] definitive, 10-year, 720-page critical study of [Darger's] life and work....MacGregor is an art historian who specializes in outsider art and is one of the last of the old-time Freudians (he studied with Anna Freud). His analyses of Darger's art and psyche draw heavily from the Freudian tool kit, and have a lot to do with repression and early-childhood trauma. It's highly convincing, although it seems to leave a few holes in things....Despite the incredible depth of MacGregor's research (and it is incredible), he's apparently known in the art-history field as a bit of a character, and he jokes about having picked up some of Darger's creative habits during the 10 years he researched his subject. (He wrote much of it sitting alone in Darger's own room, occasionally talking to the absent artist.) It's true: His work would not have been weakened by a greater commitment toward concision. The book's text is also organized a bit like Darger's writing, which is to say, you rarely get everything in a straight line....That doesn't at all keep In the Realms of the Unknown from being an engrossing read, although it's hard to get a synthesis on Darger and his work when you have to keep skipping back and forth through 720 pages, trying to clear up details that aren't where you'd think they'd be names and dates, context, chronologies. The index is sparse and somewhat crude, as though the indexing person got a migraine and gave up. It's a book that demands to be read either hard and thoroughly, or several times at leisure." Gavin McNett, Salon.com
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"One is in deep waters here, where precedents William Blake? Lewis Carrol? Balthus? are remote and few." The New Yorker
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"MacGregor's book is tremendously rewarding for its many excellent color reproductions and its always fascinating, sometimes brilliant insights." Art on Paper
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"This is the most comprehensive monograph published to date on Darger, the reclusive 'Outsider' artist with a huge reputation in the USA." Institute of Contemporary Arts
Synopsis
In the quarter century since the death of Henry Darger--and the discovery of the astonishing cache of artworks and writings he left behind--this reclusive Chicago janitor has become recognized as one of the most important outsider artists of the twentieth century in America.
This book provides the first comprehensive survey of Darger's art and writings. Included are reproductions of approximately 114 of Darger's collage drawings and fifteen selections from his writings, focusing on his life's work. In the Realms of the Unreal, which is an account of a cosmic struggle against child slavery unfolding on a planet vastly larger than our own. This battle between the forces of good--led by the intrepid Vivian sisters--and the evil Glandelinian nations, was illustrated and extended in Darger's art, including the mural-size watercolor drawings that represent his mature achievement as an artist.
Michael Bonesteel, a Chicago-based art critic and authority on outsider art, provides an introduction to Darger's work and narrates the Dickensian circumstances of his childhood which, along with his profound religious faith and doubt, shaped his extraordinary sensibility. A true American original, Henry Darger combined an unquestionable innocence with a dark and sometimes deeply disturbing vision to create a body of work of originality and lasting impact.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 710-713) and index.
Synopsis
On a snowy day in November 1972, a poor, badly crippled old man left his room on the third floor of a rooming house in Chicago for the last time. His name was Henry Darger. He had lived in this room for forty years. It was filthy, crammed with his possessions, mostly things found in the garbage. Henry never threw anything out. The room was filled, almost solid, with junk. He was now eighty years old and far too feeble to carry anything down the stairs. So he left everything behind. He had no need of his possessions. Anyway, he was going to an old folks home to die. When he left the room his life was over. His landlord asked him what he wanted done with his possessions. Henry is said to have replied, "You can have them, Mr. Leonard." At that moment the gift had no meaning. There was nothing in the room but garbage. Everything would have to be thrown out... When Darger's landlord, Nathan Lerner, assisted by a young student, David Berglund, began to clean out Henry's room they found some surprises: an eight volume autobiography, consisting of 5084 handwritten pages, entitled, The History of My Life which Henry had begun writing in 1963 after retiring. The short auto-biographical introduction to what is otherwise an enormous and utterly fantastic piece of imaginative fiction, provided some of the crucial pieces of evidence underlying the biographical reconstruction of Darger's life that form the first chapter of this book. Then, when the old trunks were opened, they made a far more spectacular discovery: a history of another world called, In The Realms of the Unreal in fifteen volumes, 15 145 type written pages, unquestionably the longest work of fiction ever written. In time the room alsoyielded the three huge bound volumes of illustrations for that work, several hundred pictures, many over twelve feet long and painted on both sides. By accident, the landlord had stumbled upon a concealed and secret life work, which no one had ever seen: Darger's alternate world.
About the Author
John MacGregor is a Princeton-trained art historian who has devoted his career to interdisciplinary studies in psychiatric art and the related fields of art brut and outsider art. In addition to Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal, MacGregors books include The Discovery of the Art of the Insane (Princeton University Press, 1989), Dwight Mackintosh: The Boy Who Time Forgot (Creative Growth Press, 1992), and The Vivian Girls (Sakuhinsya, 2000. Available in Japanese only).