Adolf Wolfli: Draftsman, Writer, Poet, Composer (Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry)

The enormous pictorial, literary, and musical work of Adolf Wolfli (1864-1930), the classic master of Art Brut, came into being exclusively during his thirty-five-year internment in a mental asylum. Diagnosed, perhaps wrongly, as a paranoid schizophrenic, Wolfli organized his work into an increasingly grand narrative structure that exerts a profound and lasting impact on readers and viewers with its intense visionary imagery. This is the first book to encompass all of Wolfli's work, including his writings and musical compositions.

The authors approach the phenomenon Wolfli from a variety of perspectives that delineate and clarify the structure of the artist's work and assess its connections to modern art. The chronology and composition of his work are presented in the context of art history. Text analyses bring new understanding to his writing. His cosmic experiences and the elaboration of his number systems are seen in relation to philosophical concepts.

Beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated, this volume traces the path of Wolfli's art on its long road from the asylum to the museum.