26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary Intensity, May 2, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Adolf Wolfli: Draftsman, Writer, Poet, Composer (Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry) (Hardcover)
Although not the definitive volume on Adolf Wolfli, this is the most comprehensive and satisfying compilation of his work to date, including 186 illustrations and a collection of essays. As the title suggests, the book gives a well rounded view of his accomplishments as a draftsman, composer, writer, and poet. Wolfli, who is considered to be an artistic genius, is examined in the context of art history and as a psychological phenomenon.
The artist spent most of his life in Switzerland's Waldeau Asylum. The mystery surrounding his work is that he did not begin producing art until 4 years after being committed. Although he had no formal training as an artist and no previous interest in drawing, he spent his 35 years at Waldeau producing a prolific (almost unbelievable) amount of work. He created more than twenty five thousand pages of drawings, prose, and musical scores depicting imaginary travels, poetry, landscapes, intricate maps, philosophies, personal mythologies, scientific theories, complex mathematical systems, and cosmic battles. Wolfli worked in pencil on simple newsprint paper and then meticulously bound the pages into books. The quality of the work is impressive considering the inferior materials available in a hospital environment. He also seems to have predicted many of the ideas that have become popular in contemporary art, immortalizing Campbell's soup advertisement thirty years before Andy Warhol's infamous silk screen.
The work itself is rich with ornament and symbolism. It is as beautiful as it is compulsive and strange. The consistent theme in his paintings appears to be an autobiographical account with alternating realities. His crimes and other actual events are depicted along with a fantastic and exaggerated version of himself as the hero of an epic adventure. The essays speculate on the meaning of his illness in relationship to his art and seem to raise more questions than they answer. It is fascinating to read, and through these reproductions and insights, we are assured that understanding is not a requirement for appreciating Wolfli as an artist.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
An art book in black and white..., April 26, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Adolf Wolfli: Draftsman, Writer, Poet, Composer (Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry) (Hardcover)
It's a shame that one of the few recent books on Adolf Wolfli is primarily made up of black and white reproductions of his art work. How is the viewer supposed to fully appreciate the qualities of the art when the color is missing? A more recent book on Wolfli, The Art of Adolf Wolfli : St. Adolf-Giant-Creation, is a much better attempt at covering Wolfli's artistic output. While not perfect, most of the reproductions are in color and at this date and time, offer the best access to Wolfli's art in color.
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