Der Zohrn, Schiiga und Land=Jäger 1917

This drawing was made with colored pencils by Adolf Wölfli, who was Swiss, and it shows his characteristically intense style. Wölfli worked in an asylum, and his artmaking was intertwined with the writing of his autobiographical narratives, sometimes in an obsessive, even compulsive manner. The density of the work is palpable; there is hardly any untouched space, so it feels packed with visual information. Note the way that color is used to flatten the image, denying any easy sense of perspective. Instead, we’re presented with a kind of overall pattern. This reflects Wölfli's commitment to what he called “horror vacui,” or fear of the empty. He made it his goal to fill every available surface with images and text. This speaks to an aesthetic which deliberately rejected the normal standards of “high art.” Instead, we might understand Wölfli as pushing back against the alienation of labor and class, making work that had meaning for himself alone. The value of his art lies in the intensity of its making, and the worldview it conveys.