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Rating: 
Summary: machinic desire
Review: An excellect selection of schizz-flows and machinic couplings, looking at this book is like watching a film by the Brother's Quay (and I believe the Brother's have made a new film based on one of the artists in this book, "In Absentia"). A beautiful and fetishistic stroll through the "Outside" of those who were locked up "inside". Take flight!
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Summary: Art and expression "beyond reason" ...
Review: I am a senior student of fine arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and I purchased "Beyond Reason" with hopes of injecting new influences into my own art. I cannot explain what this book showed me -- I did not anticipate being so taken by the works I discovered. On virtually every page, profound works of art are shown by men and women not seeing themselves as artists, but merely as human beings desperately needing to express their inner emotions. I was humbled, to the point that I am second guessing my own artistic ambitions. I was very, very moved by the works -- their frenzied grasps at order apparent with every stroke and line. Whether you are an art student, art historian, or student of the psychology, I highly recommend this edition. Beautifully reproduced and presented with respect for their creators ... "Beyond Reason" is among the finest art books in my personal library.
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Summary: Art and expression "beyond reason" ...
Review: I am a senior student of fine arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and I purchased "Beyond Reason" with hopes of injecting new influences into my own art. I cannot explain what this book showed me -- I did not anticipate being so taken by the works I discovered. On virtually every page, profound works of art are shown by men and women not seeing themselves as artists, but merely as human beings desperately needing to express their inner emotions. I was humbled, to the point that I am second guessing my own artistic ambitions. I was very, very moved by the works -- their frenzied grasps at order apparent with every stroke and line. Whether you are an art student, art historian, or student of the psychology, I highly recommend this edition. Beautifully reproduced and presented with respect for their creators ... "Beyond Reason" is among the finest art books in my personal library.
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Summary: Art as a provocative view into the human mind
Review: I first discovered the Prinzhorn Collection in late 1996 when selected paintings and drawings were put on display at the Hayward Gallery in London. The experience was extremely memorable. More than just an art exhibit, "Beyond Reason" represented a provocative view into the inner workings on the human mind. (This is especially meaningful if you accept the argument that an understanding of the ailing mind can elucidate the functions of the healthy one.) As you view the entire collection, patterns begin to emerge. "Circular" thinking, fear of being "trapped" in one's mind, and the desire to "escape" mental illness are common motifs. The cover of the book shows a great example. Painted by a schizophrenic, he successfully depicts his irrational fear of weightlessness; here, he must wear a blindfold and use hand-stilts to prevent himself from floating away. Needless to say, I purchased a copy of the "Beyond Reason" book. Nearly 200 (mostly color) high-quality reproductions are presented, and the commentary is wonderful. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Art as a provocative view into the human mind
Review: I first discovered the Prinzhorn Collection in late 1996 when selected paintings and drawings were put on display at the Hayward Gallery in London. The experience was extremely memorable. More than just an art exhibit, "Beyond Reason" represented a provocative view into the inner workings on the human mind. (This is especially meaningful if you accept the argument that an understanding of the ailing mind can elucidate the functions of the healthy one.) As you view the entire collection, patterns begin to emerge. "Circular" thinking, fear of being "trapped" in one's mind, and the desire to "escape" mental illness are common motifs. The cover of the book shows a great example. Painted by a schizophrenic, he successfully depicts his irrational fear of weightlessness; here, he must wear a blindfold and use hand-stilts to prevent himself from floating away. Needless to say, I purchased a copy of the "Beyond Reason" book. Nearly 200 (mostly color) high-quality reproductions are presented, and the commentary is wonderful. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: Haunting Yet Fascinating Inventions
Review: Our first acquaintance with the Prinzhorn Collection of psychotic art at the University of Heidelberg was in the paperback edition of Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), a book it may help to refer to while reading this one. This is the full-color catalog of a 1996-1997 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London of more than 200 examples of artÑdrawings, paintings (some using "body color"), collages, and sculptureÑproduced by mental patients in European psychiatric hospitals. The full collection, which includes nearly 5,000 items from the period of about 1890 to 1920, was named after Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German art historian and psychiatrist who did not initiate the collection, but was largely responsible for its promotion, use, and preservation. He became famous overnight when he published a book in 1922 titled Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which praised the "authenticity" and "primordiality" of psychotic self-expression. It attracted the attention of many Modern artists, especially Surrealists and Expressionists, and was used by the Nazis as proof of the underlying sickness of what they condemned publicly in 1937 as "degenerate art." Suppressed but thankfully not destroyed, the Prinzhorn Collection was stacked in a cupboard until the early 1970s, and has now been restored. These haunting yet fascinating inventions, all beautifully reproduced, are prefaced by scholarly essays about Prinzhorn, psychotic expression, and social conditions in Europe between the wars. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 1, Autumn 1998.)
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