Artist

Henry Darger

born Chicago, IL 1892-died Chicago, IL 1973
Also known as
  • Henry J. Darger
  • Henry Dargarius
Born
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Biography

Chicagoan Henry Darger gained posthumous acclaim as one of the city’s most recognized artists, but during his lifetime, he experienced tremendous hardship. Darger suffered the loss of his family, institutionalization, abuse and neglect across his formative years, and an adulthood defined by isolation and mental health challenges. These experiences drove a body of work in which war and survival were prevailing themes. Darger was a devout Catholic, although his writings reveal ongoing grief for his lost family and confusion about why God allowed such suffering. Over many decades, Darger made an extensive body of work that was scarcely known of until shortly before his death at age 81.

In many ways, Darger became the ultimate icon of the American “outsider” artist, a societal non-belonger on multiple fronts. When his art was first shown publicly, in 1977, his traumatic life story, the epic scale of his vision, and imagery seen as disturbed and disturbing typecast Darger as a deranged outcast. Neither the artist nor the art was easily described, but debates about both Darger’s character and content fueled a sensationalized presentation of the artist that was as condemning as it was celebratory. Today, scholars agree that by narrating and depicting an epic child-slave rebellion saga, Darger was processing the duality of good and evil in the world and using art as a tool of transformation, self-definition, and endurance.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022March 26, 2023
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and

Related Books

Cover for the catalogue "We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection"
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and her son Douglas O. Robson, and will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July 1, 2022 through March 26, 2023.