Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis Works From the Prinzhorn Collection
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, OHCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.