Prinzhorn Collection
{{short description|German collection of art by mental patients}}
{{infobox museum/wikidata}}The Prinzhorn Collection is a German collection of art made by mental health patients, housed at the Heidelberg University Hospital.{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/masterpieces-from-the-prinzhorn-collection-by-psychiatric-patients-a-936148.html|title=Psychiatric Breakthrough: When Illness Inspires Great Art|first=Jana|last=Hauschild|newspaper=Der Spiegel |date=November 28, 2013|via=Spiegel Online}} The collection comprises over 20,000 works, including works by Emma Hauck, Agnes Richter and August Natterer.{{Cite journal|title=Agnes Richter's jacket|first=T.|last=Röske|date=September 26, 2014|journal=Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences|volume=23|issue=3|pages=227–229|doi=10.1017/S2045796014000298|pmid=24923836|pmc=6998268|doi-access=free}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuU_VJ9WYHwC&q=Emma+Hauck+prinzhorn&pg=PA215|title=Prosthetic Gods|first=Hal|last=Foster|date=December 27, 2004|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262062428|via=Google Books}}
History
The collection was founded by the psychiatrist Karl Wilmanns and his assistant, doctor Hans Prinzhorn, in the early 1920s.{{Cite web|url=https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/prinzhorn-collection-mental-patients-292659|title=Prinzhorn Collection of Art by Mental Patients|date=April 29, 2015|website=artnet News}} Between 1919 and 1921, the pair visited mental hospitals across Germany, initially collecting over 5000 works.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stripes.com/travel/a-window-on-the-mind-heidelberg-hospital-displays-art-of-the-mentally-ill-1.398076|title=A window on the mind: Heidelberg hospital displays art of the mentally ill|website=Stars and Stripes}} As of 2016, the collection held over 20,000 works. Prinzhorn, a physician and art historian, was engaged by the hospital in 1919 specifically to improve and expand the collection.
Works from the collection were included in Entartete Kunst, the famous 1937 Nazi exhibition of 'degenerate' art.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxCeDAAAQBAJ&q=%22prinzhorn+collection%22&pg=PA86|title=LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS – Volume I|first1=Herbert|last1=Arlt|first2=Donald G.|last2=Daviau|date=May 2, 2009|publisher=EOLSS Publications|isbn=9781848261228|via=Google Books}} Following the war, the collection, largely neglected, was stored in the attic of the hospital. In 1973, a conservation effort was undertaken that led to the restoration and cataloguing of the collection.
The collection was influential on the practice of the artist Jean Dubuffet, who visited it in 1950.{{Cite web|url=https://prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de/index.php?id=152&L=1|title=Sammlung Prinzhorn -Dubuffet's list|website=prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de}} Writing to Henri Matisse, Dubuffet described it as "something I have dreamt of for years."{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-journey-into-the-radical-art-of-brain-injury-survivors/|title=A Journey Into the Radical Art of Brain Injury Survivors|first=Chris Bethel,Joe|last=Zadeh|date=February 28, 2019}}
In 2001, the collection was opened to the public at the Sammlung Prinzhorn Museum.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6LV4wrjwdzkC&q=Sammlung+Prinzhorn+collection&pg=RA1-PA69|title=Framing Marginalised Art|first1=Karen|last1=Jones|first2=Eugen|last2=Koh|first3=Nurin|last3=Veis|first4=Anthony|last4=White|first5=Rosalind|last5=Hurworth|first6=Johanna|last6=Bell|first7=Brad|last7=Shrimpton|first8=Anthony|last8=Fitzpatrick|date=November 26, 2010|publisher=UoM Custom Book Centre|isbn=9781921775215|via=Google Books}}
References
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Category:Art museum collections
Category:Heidelberg University
Category:1920s establishments in Germany
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