Henry Darger
American, 1892-1973
For 40 years, Darger lived in a one-room apartment on Chicago’s North Side that also functioned as his studio. Teeming with objects—from balls of twine and Pepto Bismol bottles to coloring books and watercolors—Darger gave up his bed for art storage and instead slept in a chair by his desk. Darger cocooned himself within the imagery of his art; his portraits of the Vivian Girls, characters from his 15,000-page novel, flanked his mantel, and his albums of source material and collections of art supplies covered any available surface. His devotion to his artistic practice was matched only by his faith; he sometimes attended Catholic Mass several times a day. Darger did not share his work with anyone; his landlord, the artist Nathan Lerner, discovered it posthumously.
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