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Philipp Schöpke |
NAVRATIL (Leo). Gugging 1946-1986, Brandstätter, Vienna, 1997.
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| Philipp Schöpke has trouble getting through elementary school. As an adult, he works on a farm but is considered an idiot by his friends (he cannot even lace his shoes) and is constantly yelled at. He joins the German army, but the psychological tests reveal that he is incapable of remaining in the service. He is diagnosed as a manic-depressive. At the beginning of his hospitalization, he acts very self-assured and talks about replacing the Chancellor of the Reich; in his depressive phases, he just wants to die and spends weeks in bed, silent. | ||
| In 1956, he is permanently institutionalized. He begins to draw mostly human figures with all their organs visible, as if they were seen through X-rays. Schöpke signs his drawings and, in most cases, adds the name of the people he represents as well as their gender and their age. Their bodies are troubling by their vulnerability and rickety appearance. These poor skeletons with only skin and bones, shaken by convulsions, look as if they had been electrocuted. | ||
| SEE ALSO: Publications de la Collection de
l'Art Brut, fascicule 12, Gugging, Lausanne, 1983. NAVRATIL (Leo). Gugging 1946-1986, Brandstätter, Vienna, 1997. |
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