Review: Who is Henry Darger? As I was walking through the local Blockbuster video store, I came across a very strange documentary film. Being the reader that I am, renting the film would have been the easy way out. I could have spent an hour or two viewing and learning about Mr. Darger, but chose to dive into his writings first. I went to my local library and was stunned to find that they did not know who he was nor have any of his writings available. So, lucky for me the librarian was just as intrigued as I and put in a search for Mr. Darger's artwork and writings. We came up with a few selections, but not from any library locally. A few days passed and I received a phone call from the library that they had tracked down some of Darger's work. I was very excited and could not wait to see some of his collages and fantasy writing in print. Wow! The first book was over 700 pages long and the heaviest text I have ever held. This was John M. MacGregor's Darger book and it was beautiful! He analyzes the art, text and man like no one ever before. I especially loved the psychoanalysis in the later part of the book and was motivated to read more of Darger's biography. The second book I previewed was by Darger and Michael Bonesteel. This book was a thinner text filled with a lot of commentary. A week passes and another Darger book comes in for me. This was the strangest of them all. Disasters of War. I like that it was an over sized book because I could really "see" Darger's work clearly for the first time. So who is Henry Darger? You have to check these books and websites to find out. I myself am planning a trip to the Folk Art Museum in NYC to see an actual Darger in person.books:
by John M. MacGregor
by Henry Darger and Michael Bonesteel
by Henry Darger, Kiyoko Lerner, and Klaus Biesenbach
folk art museum:http://www.folkartmuseum.org/default.asp
by Larry Pine, Dakota Fanning, Frier McCollister, and Wally Wingert
A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.
websites:
