Adolfi Wolfli (1864-1930)

Originally guest posted by Hvass&Hannibal

From a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland Adolph Wolfli wrote a huge epic story of 25,000 pages, containing 1600 detailed illustrations filled with musical notes and kaleidoscopical patterns.

Sadly most of the images found on the internet are very small, but you can still get a picture of his extremly detailed and very beautiful work. If interested, check you local library for books.

The story goes that the musical notes in his work started out being strictly decorative, but later developed to be real music that Wolfli performed on a paper trumpet!

American folk artist Henry Darger has a similar life story as an “outsider artist”. If you get the chance, there is a wonderful documentary about his inner worlds and his illustrated epic works, that is well worth seeing.