The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ 

Adolf Wölfli made "The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ," an undated drawing, during his decades-long confinement in a Swiss psychiatric clinic. Wölfli, one of the most well-known artists of the Art Brut movement, lived a life marked by trauma, poverty, and social alienation, spending much of his life in mental institutions. This work is an intensely personal interpretation of a widely-known religious motif, reflecting the artist's internal world. The drawing is filled with text, symbols, and obsessive details, referencing the religious elements of salvation, sacrifice, and suffering. Wölfli uses these themes to develop his own visual language, reflecting his state of mind and experiences. Rather than a traditional representation of the crucifixion, Wölfli's image presents an alternative narrative. It underscores the emotional and psychological impact of the crucifixion on the individual, and echoes the artist's own feelings of isolation and pain. The artist’s text, scrawled on the image, invites us to reflect on the intersection of personal suffering and faith.