BEYOND  REASON

Art and Psychosis :  Works from the Prinzhorn Collection
Hayward Gallery, London.   5 December 1996 to 23 February 1997

In the early 1920s, the German art historian and psychiatric doctor, Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933) amassed a remarkable collection of some 6,000 paintings, drawings, objects and collages made by the patients of psychiatric hospitals throughout Europe. His interest, unique at the time, lay as much in their value as art, as in their importance for the study of mental illness.
In 1922 Prinzhorn published a celebrated book based on the collection, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which confronted the issue of individual expression, and vigorously challenged long-held beliefs of the art establishment. Its impact was enormous, and the images it contained were a source of inspiration to many artists of the avant-garde, including Max Ernst and the Surrealists.

A rich display of over 200 works from the collection, all created between 1890 and 1920, will now be shown for the first time. All of these works sprang from what Prinzhorn termed "the drive towards expression".

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