Das Skt. Adolf=Diamantt=Riesen=Hohrn, am Flohzohrn, in Indien und, der Hahr=Kamm 1917

Adolf Wölfli made this drawing, Das Skt. Adolf=Diamantt=Riesen=Hohrn, am Flohzohrn, in Indien und, der Hahr=Kamm, with colored pencil, and ink, sometime before 1930. It looks like Wölfli built this whole world up from small marks, a real accumulation of detail and pattern. There's this bridge-like form in the center, almost like a proscenium arch. Below it is a face, or mask, submerged in water, or maybe it's just floating in space? The texture is built up with short, hatched lines of blue, black, and gray, a real commitment to process. Then, above the bridge, there are these fantastic, elongated birdlike forms intertwining, and script filling all the negative space. Wölfli reminds me a little of Hilma af Klint, who was also making intense, visionary images at the same time. It's like both artists tapped into some alternate reality and set about transcribing it for the rest of us, embracing ambiguity along the way.