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Helene Reimann
Polish nationality
Born in 1893
Dies in Germany in 1987
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| Helene Reimann sells shoes. She is married with seven
children. In 1938, she is hospitalized for schizophrenia. This happens at
a time when the Nazis exterminate mentally ill people. Helene escapes by
hiding at one of her daughter's. In 1949, she is admitted to the mental
hospital of Bayreuth. Withdrawn into herself, she spends most of her time
drawing. She hides her works under her pillow to prevent the hospital staff
from throwing them away. In 1975, Professor Böcker becomes director of the
hospital and shows an appreciation for her art. |
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| Helene Reimann's drawings become an album of her memories
from the days preceding the hospitalization. She takes objects from her
everyday life: shoes, dresses, animals, furniture, flowers and fruit. Helene
feels removed and deprived of everything. She has moved far away, like those
intergalactic voyagers who take with them only few traces from the earth. |
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| SEE ALSO: LOMMEL (Madeleine). L'Aracine et
l'Art Brut, Z'éditions, 1999. |
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