The Henry Darger Study Center at the American Folk Art Museum A Collections Policy Recommendation Report by Shannon Robinson Spring 2010 I. Overview page 3 II. Mission and Goals page 5 III. Service Community and Programs page 7 IV. The Collection and Future Acquisition page 8 V. Library Selection page 11 VI. Responsibilities page 12 VII. Complaints and Censorship page 13 VIII. Evaluation page 13 IX. Bibliography page 15 X. Additional Materials References page 16 I. Overview The American Folk Art Museum in New York City is largely focused on the collection and preservation of the artwork of self-taught artists in the United States and abroad. The Museum began in 1961 as the Museum of Early American Folk Arts; at that time, the idea of appreciating folk art alongside contemporary art was a consequence of modernism (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010c). The collection’s pieces date to as early as the eighteenth century and in it’s earlier days was largely comprised of sculpture. The Museum approached collecting and exhibiting much like a contemporary art gallery. This was in support of its mission promoting the “aesthetic appreciation” and “creative expressions” of folk artists as parallel in content and quality to more mainstream, trained artists. (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010b). Within ten years of opening, however, and though the collection continued to grow, a financial strain hindered a bright future for the Museum. In 1977, the Museum’s Board of Trustees appointed Robert Bishop director (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010c). While Bishop was largely focused on financial and facility issues, he encouraged gift acquisitions, and increasing the collection in general, by promising many artworks from his personal collection. During his tenure, Bishop also began a volunteer docent program and, in 1981, a graduate program (with New York University) in folk art studies; four years later, the Folk Art Institute was established to degree certificates in folk art studies (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010c). This set a precedent for the Museum as not only an exhibition space, but also a classroom. In the early 1990s, Gerard Wertkin succeeded Bishop as director and, while he was focused on improving the facilities of the Museum and its offices, he was also intent on creating opportunities for new scholarship. Under his vision, the Museum developed the Contemporary Center. This Center would be dedicated to twentieth and twenty-first century self-taught artists as well as “taking on a leadership role in the developing international field of the self-taught, especially long-standing challenges revolving around the issues of scholarship quality, and semantics (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010a).” In 2001, the Center acquired much of the work of one artist in particular, a recluse janitor by the name of Henry Darger. Henry Darger spent his entire life in Illinois. By eight years old, Henry was in the poor house in Chicago, aban- doned by a father too old and ill to care for the boy. From there he went to live at the Mission of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic boys’ home (Bonesteel, 2000, 8). His unusual behavior did not award him many friends and, in his early teens, a psychiatric diagnosis that his “heart isn’t in the right place” triggered his transfer to the Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Lincoln (Darger, The History of My Life, unpublished manuscript, 41). Years later, grieved by the news of his father’s death, Henry ran away from the Asylum, returning to his hometown of Chicago where he began a lifelong career as a hospital dishwasher and janitor. As a recluse with many quirks, possibly undiagnosed mental health problems, not many people really got to know Henry Darger or his thoughts. It was only about a year before his death when Darger, moved by his caring landlords to a nursing home, was revealed for a prolific artist and writer. After his death, in 1973, the full extent of Darger’s inner world was discovered - and quickly admired. The Henry Darger Study Center, part of The Contemporary Center, is home to all of Darger’s writing (some thirty thousand pages, divided into four main manuscripts), much of his ephemera and source material, and twenty-four of his over three hundred paintings (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010d). This is the largest public collection of Darger’s work and, because it contains the original manuscript to his 15,000 page epic novel, arguably the most important. Fully titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, it is a classic tale of good versus evil with overlay of Catholic doctrine, sadistic violence, and pedophilia that is well-illustrated with hundreds of collages and watercolor paintings, some nearly a dozen feet in length. Darger also kept diaries of various kinds (daily, weather) and wrote an autobiography, The History of My Life. All of Darger’s work, writing or painting, can stand alone as a stunning success with plenty of mystery; however, all of Darger’s work, together in entirety, is a masterpiece of unequaled brilliance. II. Mission and Goals As a division of the American Folk Art Museum, the Henry Darger Study Center must echo the overall mission of promoting traditional folk arts and hold firm to the Contemporary Center’s goal to foster scholarship in the field. In order to do this successfully, the Museum must consider two key objectives: to refrain from blindly following the classic museum model of acquisition and exhibition and to identify ‘folk art’ and clarify semantics. These recommendations comprise the “intellectual framework” for why the Museum should support the acquisition and research of the Henry Darger Study Center (Simmons, 2004, 2). As noted, in much of the Museum’s early history, collection development and exhibition guidelines mimicked those of the fine art galleries and museums that were (and still are) the Museum’s most comparable neighbors. However, fine art is often “removed from the context of [its] creation” and stands alone as finished work and closing statement in and of itself (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010a). This is unacceptable for self-taught artists, whose works carry the story and culture of an individual as representation of the story and culture of a nation. To separate the two would be to lose true meaning of both. This is particularly relevant to an artist such as Henry Darger; his work defines him and yet his life ephemera provides clues to fully realizing his work. Furthermore, his paintings act as illustration to In the Realms of the Unreal and thereby each is integral to understanding the other. The Museum must keep this at the forefront in acquisitions selection, exhibition display, and support of scholarship that questions the artist, rather than just the works. Likewise, without understanding the language of the genre of folk art, the Museum cannot confidently makes decisions regarding acquisitions and collection maintenance. Naïve or self-taught artists have no formal training and, following the history of art brut (raw art), can be of any age and any mental and social standing. Outsider artists also have no formal training but are those on the outskirts of society, often because of mental or social problems (The American Museum of Folk Art, 2010a). One term is all inclusive and therefore lacks clarity while the other is marginalizing and instantly stereotyping. Today, in scholarship, vernacular is commonly used to refer to the everyday, the commonality of art within the artist’s routine, without separation of studio or critical thought. Henry Darger is mostly described as an outsider artist due to the popularity of the term and the bizarre content of his work that suggests mental incapability; this probability cannot be denied as his work can be seen as an effect of his mental state. The Museum and Center must clearly focus “through the lens of language” in order to view the thin line of distinction between contemporary fine art and traditional self-taught art (The American Folk Art Museum, 2010a). III. Service Community and Programs As an international museum, the American Folk Art Museum has a responsibility to support the traditional folk arts and educate the general public about the art, artists, and how they represent a cultural history as well as visual representations of the mind and psyche. Henry Darger should be part of this education, through continued acquisition and exhibition of his work. This is particularly necessary because of the popularity of Darger’s work and life story; he has inspired a book-length poem by John Ashbery and a song by Natalie Merchant as well as other popular artists’ attributions (Cotter, 2002, 38). As Darger’s influence spreads, demands to view his work and learn more about his life will continue to advance the Center’s mission. As well as the general public, art students, artists, and scholars will be a part of the Center’s service community. While Darger has gained popularity with the general public, he has become idolized within the art world. Dargerphiles, as Henry’s long-term landlord, Kiyoko Lerner calls them, have hounded her (and her late husband) “wanting a piece of Henry Darger (Jones, 2005).” The Lerners had kept Darger’s apartment in tact, almost as a shrine, until the apartment was to be demolished in 2000. Knowing what this devoted audience needed, Kiyoko hosted an overnight in ‘the room’ for these followers (Jones, 2005). This audience, too, will look toward the Center for the preservation of Darger’s work and ephemera as well as participate in developing new scholarship.