The Lincoln Asylum’s practices included forced labor and severe punishments, a theme which would later occur throughout Darger’s work. A series of attempted escapes ended successfully in 1908, when the 16-year-old Darger returned on foot to Chicago. He found menial employment in a Catholic hospital and continued to support himself in this fashion until his retirement in 1963. He attended mass every day, often several times a day, but otherwise led a solitary life.

Unknown to everyone, Darger spent six decades creating a massive literary and graphic body of work. Central to Darger’s work is his 15,145 page epic, entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, as caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Hundreds of paintings illustrate the Realms of the Unreal, some on scrolls ten feet long. Darger’s paintings, as well as the passages of the Realms of the Unreal they illustrate, are at times disturbingly violent. Often employing collage or traced figures, Darger’s keen sense of composition and use of vivid color allowed him to create landscapes, battle scenes, and portraits of incredible intensity and beauty.

Darger’s landlords, Kiyoko and Nathan Lerner, came across his work shortly before his death and immediately recognized the artistic merit of Darger’s work. Darger passed away in 1973 in a Catholic mission operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor. He lay for more than 20 years in an umarked grave. In 1996, Lerner purchased a headstone engraved, “Artist, Protector of Children.” Darger remains today one of the most famous figures in the history of outsider art and is wildly referenced in popular culture.

To learn more about Henry Darger, please visit the Henry Darger Room Collection on view in Intuit’s Study Gallery.

William Thomas Thompson, Heaven and Hell, 2011, Courtesy of the artist

HEAVEN+HELL is an inspired collaboration of creative thinking and practical dynamics from two very different organizations: Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA). The exhibition will serve as a bridge between the two museums with the Hell portion of the exhibition taking place in Intuit’s Galleries at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. and Heaven taking place at LUMA, 820 N. Michigan Ave.

The themes of heaven and hell are frequently addressed in outsider and intuitive art. Outsider artists’ perspectives range from illustrative, word-laden drawings to stylized, sculptural versions of figurative images that populate their perceptions of the heavenly and the hellish. Self-taught and outsider artists often use the themes of heaven and hell not as concepts, but as broad visualizations that may be invented, drawn from popular media or the Bible, or influenced by their religious upbringing. HEAVEN+HELL seeks to explore the breadth of expression in self-taught art with these themes in mind. The exhibition will feature work by American artists such as Minnie Evans (1892-1987), Howard Finster (1916-2001), William Edmondson (c. 1870-1951), Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980), William Blayney (1918-1985), William Thomas Thompson (1935 – ) and Norbert Kox (1945 – ), among many others.

Co-curated by Jan Petry, Exhibitions Chair at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and Molly Tarbell, Exhibition Curator, Loyola University Museum of Art, the exhibition features 165 works of art by 54 artists as well as several anonymous works. This exhibition is accompanied by a 36-page catalog with an essay by Jerry Bleem, a Franciscan Friar, Catholic Priest, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The catalog is available at both venues for $12 or buy it online in our gift shop. Special – FREE admission at Intuit on Tuesdays during HEAVEN+HELL!

Palais Idéal, Photo (c) Emmanuel Georges/ Collection Palais Idéal

Join Intuit as we explore the wonderful art environments of France. Centered in Paris, this tour will provide a variety of day trips to various museums and art environments throughout France. Price includes hotel accommodations, breakfasts and 3 group meals as well as ground transportation, entrance fees and English speaking guides during group day trips. For more detailed information on the sites we will be visiting, please click here. Please note that day-to-day itinerary is subject to change.

For further information or to place your reservation, please contact Intuit’s Education Director, Carol Ng-He.

Space is extremely limited, please reserve your spot today!

To kick off the series, join Dan Rybicky, Guest Film Curator from Columbia College, with colleagues Ron Falzone and Zoran Samardzija as they explore excerpts from their favorite depictions of heaven and/or hell as seen in film or television.

Films Series Includes:
March 8, 6pm: Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death) (1946), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Presburger
April 12, 6pm: Jigoku (or The Sinners of Hell) (1960), directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
May 10, 6pm: The Exterminating Angel (1962), directed by Luis Bunuel
June 14, 6pm: In a Dream (2009), directed by Jeremy Zagar

Enjoy a film screening of Dream Havana followed by a Q&A session with filmmaker Gary Marks. Refreshments will be provided. Running time: 82 minutes.

Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death)

Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, flyer Peter Carter’s plane is damaged and his parachute ripped to shreds. He has his crew bail out safely, but figures it is curtains for himself. He gets on the radio, and talks to June, a young American woman working for the USAAF, and they are quite moved by each other’s voices. Then he jumps, preferring this to burning up with his plane. He wakes up in the surf. It was his time to die, but there was a mixup in heaven. They couldn’t find him in all that fog. By the time his “Conductor” catches up with him 20 hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. This changes everything, and since it happened through no fault of his own, Peter figures that heaven owes him a second chance. Heaven agrees to a trial to decide his fate. (imdb.com)