Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis Works From the Prinzhorn Collection [Paperback]

Laurent Busine (Author), Bettina Brand-Claussen (Author), Caroline Douglas (Author), Inge Jadi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520217403 | ISBN-13: 978-0520217409 | Publication Date: September 7, 1998 | Edition: 1

In the early 1920s the German art historian and psychiatrist, Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), amassed a remarkable collection of some 5,000 paintings, drawings, objects, and collages made by patients in European psychiatric institutions. His interest, unique at the time, was twofold: to assess the art as creative work, and to use it as a way of studying mental illness. Prinzhorn's Collection attracted the attention of many artists, including Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, but by the 1930s, when the Nazis declared such work "degenerate," the Collection fell into disrepair. Only in recent decades has it been properly restored and made available for a wider public.
This catalog accompanied the first exhibition in Britain to foreground the Prinzhorn Collection as a whole. The works represented in these pages defy simple categorization: The range is extraordinary and the art's startling sophistication, inventiveness, and beauty inevitably prompt comparison with such artists as Max Ernst and the Surrealists and with Jean Dubuffet.
Three texts are immensely helpful in providing an understanding of the Collection's importance: Bettina Brand-Claussen deals with the Collection's origins within the changing culture of postwar Europe; Inge Jádi offers a meditation on the ethical, interpretative, and aesthetic questions in presenting the Collection; and Caroline Douglas sets Prinzhorn's endeavor within a broader historical and intellectual context.
Questions surrounding art and madness are endlessly fascinating, no more so than today, as science moves to unlock the mysteries of the mind. The Prinzhorn Collection will do much to inspire continuing debate on the links between creativity, rationality, and illness.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Some art history books portray the capability for great beauty within the human heart; this book, which collects art works of the mentally ill, shocks and engrosses like a car wreck; we don't want to gawk, but we are compelled. From 1918 to 1921, Hans Prinzhorn, who was versed in both art history and psychiatry, collected more than 5000 works by patients in European mental hospitals made in the preceding four decades. Some 200 of these works were recently exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, London, and are represented here along with three essays providing a history and context for the collection. Still, the book leaves one with more questions than answers. The works don't fit with the advances in psychiatric diagnosis or in art historical categorizations; they don't even fit with each other. But they all emanate from a place of extreme emotion and suffering. A good companion piece to John M. MacGregor's The Discovery of the Art of the Insane (Princeton Univ., 1989), this is recommended for libraries that focus on modern art and psychology.?Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

"The pictures reproduced in this excellent book are a feast for the hungry imagination . . . and form a stunning tribute to the creative spirit. The Prinzhorn Collection is a unique, but hitherto little known resource of great historical significance."--Roy Porter, Wellcome Institute

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (September 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520217403
• ISBN-13: 978-0520217409
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art and expression "beyond reason" ..., October 14, 1999

By 

Robert D. Williams (Reading, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis Works From the Prinzhorn Collection (Paperback)

I am a senior student of fine arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and I purchased "Beyond Reason" with hopes of injecting new influences into my own art. I cannot explain what this book showed me -- I did not anticipate being so taken by the works I discovered. On virtually every page, profound works of art are shown by men and women not seeing themselves as artists, but merely as human beings desperately needing to express their inner emotions. I was humbled, to the point that I am second guessing my own artistic ambitions. I was very, very moved by the works -- their frenzied grasps at order apparent with every stroke and line. Whether you are an art student, art historian, or student of the psychology, I highly recommend this edition. Beautifully reproduced and presented with respect for their creators ... "Beyond Reason" is among the finest art books in my personal library.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art as a provocative view into the human mind, August 7, 2000

By 

Stephen S. Hau (Venturesome Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis Works From the Prinzhorn Collection (Paperback)

I first discovered the Prinzhorn Collection in late 1996 when selected paintings and drawings were put on display at the Hayward Gallery in London. The experience was extremely memorable.

More than just an art exhibit, "Beyond Reason" represented a provocative view into the inner workings on the human mind. (This is especially meaningful if you accept the argument that an understanding of the ailing mind can elucidate the functions of the healthy one.)

As you view the entire collection, patterns begin to emerge. "Circular" thinking, fear of being "trapped" in one's mind, and the desire to "escape" mental illness are common motifs. The cover of the book shows a great example. Painted by a schizophrenic, he successfully depicts his irrational fear of weightlessness; here, he must wear a blindfold and use hand-stilts to prevent himself from floating away.

Needless to say, I purchased a copy of the "Beyond Reason" book. Nearly 200 (mostly color) high-quality reproductions are presented, and the commentary is wonderful. I highly recommend this book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Yet Fascinating Inventions, March 28, 1999

By 

Simulacrum - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis Works From the Prinzhorn Collection (Paperback)

Our first acquaintance with the Prinzhorn Collection of psychotic art at the University of Heidelberg was in the paperback edition of Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), a book it may help to refer to while reading this one. This is the full-color catalog of a 1996-1997 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London of more than 200 examples of artÑdrawings, paintings (some using "body color"), collages, and sculptureÑproduced by mental patients in European psychiatric hospitals. The full collection, which includes nearly 5,000 items from the period of about 1890 to 1920, was named after Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German art historian and psychiatrist who did not initiate the collection, but was largely responsible for its promotion, use, and preservation. He became famous overnight when he published a book in 1922 titled Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which praised the "authenticity" and "primordiality" of psychotic self-expression. It attracted the attention of many Modern artists, especially Surrealists and Expressionists, and was used by the Nazis as proof of the underlying sickness of what they condemned publicly in 1937 as "degenerate art." Suppressed but thankfully not destroyed, the Prinzhorn Collection was stacked in a cupboard until the early 1970s, and has now been restored. These haunting yet fascinating inventions, all beautifully reproduced, are prefaced by scholarly essays about Prinzhorn, psychotic expression, and social conditions in Europe between the wars. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 1, Autumn 1998.)