Category Archives: Fine line

Unica Zürn

Unica Zürn | drawings

For Zürn, schizophrenia meant that the eruption of inchoate, irrational forces into the everyday celebrated by the Surrealists was not just an artistic goal but a way of life.

Unica Zürn

Unica Zürn | drawings

For Zürn, schizophrenia meant that the eruption of inchoate, irrational forces into the everyday celebrated by the Surrealists was not just an artistic goal but a way of life.

Antonin Artaud self portrait

Antonin Artaud | drawings

After years of psychiatric treatment Artaud experienced a late, brief resurgence of creativity, although the dark, disordered visions and troubled portraits he committed to paper suggest a mind still at war with itself.

Antonin Artaud self portrait

Antonin Artaud | drawings

After years of psychiatric treatment Artaud experienced a late, brief resurgence of creativity, although the dark, disordered visions and troubled portraits he committed to paper suggest a mind still at war with itself.

Henry Darger skies

Henry Darger | clouds

Sometimes the clouds hover benign and oblivious to the savagery on the ground, sometimes the action blasts into the upper atmosphere, carrying Darger’s rage and despair with it.

Henry Darger skies

Henry Darger | clouds

Sometimes the clouds hover benign and oblivious to the savagery on the ground, sometimes the action blasts into the upper atmosphere, carrying Darger’s rage and despair with it.

Antonin

Spectres of Artaud

As with the Reina Sofia’s Roussel survey, ‘Spectres of Artaud. Language and the Arts around 1952′ acknowledges a figure whose influence ranged far beyond the literary, reaching into performance, music, visual arts and cinema.

Antonin

Spectres of Artaud

As with the Reina Sofia’s Roussel survey, ‘Spectres of Artaud. Language and the Arts around 1952′ acknowledges a figure whose influence ranged far beyond the literary, reaching into performance, music, visual arts and cinema.

Ludwig II

Rex Luna (repost)

Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.

Ludwig II

Rex Luna (repost)

Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.

Ludwig at the movies

Ludwig at the movies

Ludwig II is back on screen at the end of this year in a new German production, a hundred years since his first film appearance, more or less. Here are ten milestones of the Bavarian king’s cinematic century.

Ludwig at the movies

Ludwig at the movies

Ludwig II is back on screen at the end of this year in a new German production, a hundred years since his first film appearance, more or less. Here are ten milestones of the Bavarian king’s cinematic century.

P_12Feb_artaud

Places: Phoenix Park

Antonin Artaud’s harrowing writing forms a dark, precarious monument teetering at, and sometimes over, the edge of sanity. Like Nietzsche, his conception of what art could and should do for society and the individual started where most artists’ ended.

P_12Feb_artaud

Places: Phoenix Park

Antonin Artaud’s harrowing writing forms a dark, precarious monument teetering at, and sometimes over, the edge of sanity. Like Nietzsche, his conception of what art could and should do for society and the individual started where most artists’ ended.

P_11Nov_kinski

The wrath of God

If you were asked to identify the psychological weak link of a production you would probably go with the guy who is screaming himself hoarse for a half-hour stretch because the catering had fallen short of his standards.

P_11Nov_kinski

The wrath of God

If you were asked to identify the psychological weak link of a production you would probably go with the guy who is screaming himself hoarse for a half-hour stretch because the catering had fallen short of his standards.

P_Dec10_gerard

The white caliph

Gerard MacBryan was described as a “complete crook”, a “quisling”, an “undesirable character”, “a kind of evil genius”. He was the heir to an asylum and his tale embraces intrigue, treachery and a descent into Heart of Darkness-style tropical insanity.

P_Dec10_gerard

The white caliph

Gerard MacBryan was described as a “complete crook”, a “quisling”, an “undesirable character”, “a kind of evil genius”. He was the heir to an asylum and his tale embraces intrigue, treachery and a descent into Heart of Darkness-style tropical insanity.

P_10Aug_ludwig

Rex Luna

Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.

P_10Aug_ludwig

Rex Luna

Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.

Nancy Cunard

After Hours

The Nancy Cunard who journeyed from Nice to the outskirts of Paris in early March, 1965 – drunk, drug-addled, half-mad, paranoid, crippled, emaciated – was a long way from the Nancy Cunard of popular memory, the poet, progressive publisher, proponent

Nancy Cunard

After Hours

The Nancy Cunard who journeyed from Nice to the outskirts of Paris in early March, 1965 – drunk, drug-addled, half-mad, paranoid, crippled, emaciated – was a long way from the Nancy Cunard of popular memory, the poet, progressive publisher, proponent

Bryher

Borderline madness

Despite their messy romantic entanglement, the trio formed a progressive creative unit which they dubbed The Pool Group. In 1930 they made the film Borderline, which featured singer Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda as well as H.D. and Bryher.

Bryher

Borderline madness

Despite their messy romantic entanglement, the trio formed a progressive creative unit which they dubbed The Pool Group. In 1930 they made the film Borderline, which featured singer Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda as well as H.D. and Bryher.

La Lupe

¡La Lupe!

With her on-stage histrionics and off-stage drama, La Lupe was a suffering, Garland-esque prima donna, name-checked in Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp. While touring with Tito Puente, La Lupe proved so erratic that she was replaced with two drag queens.

La Lupe

¡La Lupe!

With her on-stage histrionics and off-stage drama, La Lupe was a suffering, Garland-esque prima donna, name-checked in Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp. While touring with Tito Puente, La Lupe proved so erratic that she was replaced with two drag queens.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Dada Baroness

There is ample evidence to suggest that the “Dada Baroness”, with her compulsion to invest mass-produced objects with totemic significance, exerted a strong influence on Duchamp’s readymades and thus on the entire history of 20th century art.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Dada Baroness

There is ample evidence to suggest that the “Dada Baroness”, with her compulsion to invest mass-produced objects with totemic significance, exerted a strong influence on Duchamp’s readymades and thus on the entire history of 20th century art.

Berbiguier

Thyme the healer

What constitutes a bad day for you? Chances are it doesn’t involve persecution by legions of demonic goblins or opening the letterbox to find a letter from Lucifer, threatening to send even more of his hellish hordes. Such were the daily travails of the delightfully named Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym.

Berbiguier

Thyme the healer

What constitutes a bad day for you? Chances are it doesn’t involve persecution by legions of demonic goblins or opening the letterbox to find a letter from Lucifer, threatening to send even more of his hellish hordes. Such were the daily travails of the delightfully named Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym.

Henry Darger

North Side Outsider

It’s the phenomenal scale of Henry Darger’s oeuvre which guarantees that he will never be fully known by the public he never expected to encounter.

Henry Darger

North Side Outsider

It’s the phenomenal scale of Henry Darger’s oeuvre which guarantees that he will never be fully known by the public he never expected to encounter.