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Tuesday, January 5, 7:00pm
Between Madness and Art: The Prinzhorn Collection
Directed by Christian Beetz, 2008, 75 minutes
Speaker: David Sachs, M.D.
Is there a relationship between psychosis and the artistic impulse? What can artworks produced by mental patients tell us about artistic genius? Between Madness and Art examines these issues through the story of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German student of psychiatry and art history.
Esteemed psychoanalyst David Sachs will introduce the film and give a brief talk about the relationship between psychosis and the creative impulse after the screening.
Dr. Sachs is a Training and Supervisory Psychoanalyst at the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalysis, and was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (emeritus) at Hahnemann University Medical School. He has spent more than 40 years teaching, writing, and treating patients.
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As Director of the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic in the 1920s, Dr. Hans Prinzhorn was fascinated by the beauty and expressiveness of the drawings, paintings, and sculptures of his schizophrenic patients. He began to study and preserve this art, eventually writing a seminal study, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, and by the time of his death had organized the largest collection of its type in the world.
After Prinzhorn's death, the Nazis displayed some of his patients' works for their 1937 exhibition of "degenerate art." Forgotten for many years, the Prinzhorn Collection was rediscovered in 1963, toured Europe, Asia, and the U.S., and has led to a reevaluation of what today is known as "outsider art." The film tells this remarkable story through archival footage, profiles of Prinzhorn's patient-artists, footage of their artworks, and interviews with psychotherapists, doctors, artists, curators, two contemporary outpatient artists and the collection's current director.
The program begin at 7pm in the Ibrahim Theater at International House, 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Tickets available in advance at TICKETWEB.
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