Henry Darger lived in a vast and turbulent world. A world filled with children, war, tragedy, fantastic guardian creatures, flowers, color, hope, and despair. Yet this world, exceedingly vivid as well as feverishly detailed, existed only on paper and in one small room. This room is the subject of a new book published by Yukiko Koide and Kyoichi Tsuzuki simply titled Henry Darger’s Room, 851 Webster.
Darger has received considerable attention over the last few years. In many ways, when one tries to comprehend Darger, there are always more questions than answers. Yet most questions about this impassioned artist/writer will never be resolved. He remains an enigma. This book though has information about Darger that is unambiguous. It is a fact that he lived in this room for the last forty years of his life and this is where his writing and works of visual art were discovered shortly after his death.
Henry Darger’s Room, 851 Webster is an elegant hardback edition published in Japan with both English and Japanese text. The book includes more than 50 photographs of Darger’s living space as well as an essay by Darger scholar, John M. MacGregor. The book opens with comments by Kiyoko Lerner, who with her late husband Nathan, owned 851 Webster. Thoughtful observations by Outsider art authority Yukiko Koide concludes this volume with a description of her visit to Darger’s apartment in 1990. Their voices add dimension to this intimate publication.
Darger’s room was like an artist installation or a three dimensional collage. Every possible surface of his space was covered; piles were everywhere. The photographs have a daunting intensity similar to what one observes in Darger’s own art works. But this book is not about a work of art, rather it reveals a profoundly personal home.
Everything Darger cared about was in his room - children’s books, religious statues, records that were played on an antiquated phonograph, all types of art supplies, a beloved chair and his solid Remington typewriter. Yet what is most compelling to view is the enormous number of images that consume the room. Almost all the images Darger chose are faces, children’s faces. Some of these are works of his own creation, others cut from discarded magazines found in the trash. His room was an evocative composite that reflected a remarkably defined and intensely focused vision.
Henry Darger’s Room, 851 Webster is the first effort by Yukiko Koide and Kyoichi Tsuzuki for their newly created Imperial Press. Koide is an independent curator, art dealer, and the leading expert on international Outsider art in Japan. She is responsible for introducing the works of many Outsider masters, including Henry Darger, to the Japanese public. Kyoichi Tsuzuki is known throughout Japan for his challenging and provocative books on Japanese interiors. His groundbreaking work, Tokyo Style, shattered the Western myth that the Japanese live in Zen-like spaces by documenting the small, cramped, and jam-packed apartments of Tokyo.
Henry Darger’s Room, 851 Webster is a thoughtfully conceived book and an important contribution to the discourse on 20th century Outsider art. It captures the world Darger inhabited and makes public the place where he gave birth to yet another world that transcends imagination and fantasy.
This review by Scott Rothstein appeared previously in the Folk Art Messenger (Vol. 19, No. 3, Fall/Winter 2007), a publication of the Folk Art Society of America. It is reprinted here with permission.
the Folk Art Messenger web page
Henry Darger's Room is now on sale on Amazon.com for $45.00. Sold by Mar Vista Books.
29.12.07
Review - Henry Darger’s Room, 851 Webster
22.12.07
Kunizo Matsumoto "Obsessed with Letters" - At Yukiko Koide Presents Tokyo - December 7 to 21, 2007
photo: the artist and his work
Kunizo Matsumoto is always writing. Filling notebooks, covering blank sheets of paper, passionately writing. His calligraphy is vigorous and focused, his characters both real and imagined.
Matsumoto writes about the things he loves – the traditional performance arts, Kabuki and Bunraku, as well as contemporary cultural forms, such as Disney. Like many contemporary Japanese artists, he is attracted to both “high” and “low” art.
Beyond subject matter, there is a great range to Matsumoto’s creations. The diminutive sized examples at Yukiko Koide’s gallery are all on simple white postcards. Covering the surface with letters, these works have a rhythm defined by density and openness. There is a general playfulness in these compositions, each related to the other, yet different.
When writing in a notebook, he transforms the book into an art object. Page after page are almost attacked, creating a visual sense of urgency. Letters bleed through the paper, forming layers that revel and imply.
Matsumoto also writes on printed wall calendars. These efforts take on an intriguing appearance; the familiar and organized printed image coexisting with Matsumoto’s additions. Elegant and thought provoking, the wall calendar drawings may be Matsumoto’s most original works, demonstrating the artist’s ability to co-op any material and make it his own.
Yukiko Koide Presents - gallery site
Kunizo Matsumoto - article in Raw Visions
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