The gallery has been the exclusive representative of the Estate of Henry Darger since 2006.

Dates
1892-1973

Biography
Henry Darger was born in Chicago in 1892. After the death of his mother he was placed in a Catholic home for boys and then into the Lincoln Asylum  for Feeble-Minded Children in rural Illinois, from which he ran away at the age of seventeen.

Darger lived a solitary life, working as a janitor in a Chicago hospital from around the age of thirty until his retirement in 1963. A devout Catholic, Darger went to mass every day. During this time Darger created the work for which he is now known.  Alone in his room, unknown to those around him, he gave tangible, visible form to an epic story of legions of pre-pubescent girls—with paper-doll faces and unexpected male organs—who battle for their lives against monstrous foes who seek to torture, kill or exploit them. This, his magnum opus, is commonly referred to as In the Realms of the Unreal  though Darger’s actual title is The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelininian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, and spans over 15,000 single-spaced typewritten pages. This expansive, complex narrative together with over 300 imaginatively constructed fantasy drawings have come to be regarded as one of the 20th century’s most original and unusual literary works.

It was not until after Darger’s death that the full scope of his artistic production became known. His landlord,  Nathan Lerner, himself an artist and inventor, discovered Darger’s artworks after the artist was sent to a nursing home just before the end of his life. After the reclusive artist’s death, Lerner devoted much of his time and attention to the gathering and dissemination of Darger’s art and related, archival materials. Nathan Lerner died in 1997 at which point his wife Kiyoko Lerner took over managing the artist’s estate.

As Darger’s work has become better-known to both outsider-art and contemporary-art audiences in the U.S. and in Europe, it has won wide acclaim from critics, artists, art historians, curators and collectors who have recognized the withdrawn art-maker and story-teller as one of the most original talents—and as a true visionary—of his time.

Darger’s art has been the subject of the monographs Henry Darger: Selected Art and Writings, by Michael Bonesteel (Rizzoli, 2000), and Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal, by John M. MacGregor (Delano Greenridge Editions, 2002). The artist’s work and life were also the focus of a meditative documentary by the Academy Award-winning film-maker Jessica Yu (In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004). Other movies about Darger may be forthcoming; the California-based production company Bedford Falls, which co-produced “The Last Samurai” with Warner Bros., has purchased the rights to develop a feature film based on the artist’s life.

Darger’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Collection de l’Art Brut (Lausanne), the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Darger’s art also has been featured in many notable museum exhibitions, including  “The Unreality of Being,” curated by Stephen Prokopoff (University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1996; Museum of American Folk Art, New York, 1997). It was also seen in “Disasters of War” (P.S. 1, New York, 2000), where it was presented alongside works by the Spanish master Francisco de Goya and the British, contemporary-art duo Jake and Dinos Chapman. Earlier this year, an entire gallery was devoted to Darger’s drawings in “Dubuffet and Art Brut” at the Museum Kunst Palast, in Düsseldorf; that exhibition will open at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille-Métropole on October 10 (and run through February 1, 2006). Darger’s work has also been shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Setagaya Art Museum (Tokyo), the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), and the Collection de l’Art Brut. Darger’s art is scheduled to be featured in forthcoming exhibitions at La Maison Rouge (Paris), next year, and at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco) in 2007.

Selected Public Collections
Museum of Modern Art (New York)
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York)
American Folk Art Museum (New York)
Collection de l’Art Brut (Lausanne)
New Orleans Museum of Art
Art Institute of Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago)
Milwaukee Art Museum
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis)
Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin)
National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian, Washington D.C.)
High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA)
Musée d'art moderne de Lille Metropole (Villeneuve d'Ascq)

Selected Solo Exhibits
2010
The Private Collection of Henry Darger, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2008
Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Darger Discoveries, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Henry Darger : A Story of Girls at War, Of Paradises Dreamed, The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Henry Darger: The Vivian Girls Emerge, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2006
Henry Darger: Highlights from the American Folk Art Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, The Frye Art
Museum, Seattle, WA
Bruit et fureur : L'œuvre de Henry Darger (Sound and Fury: The Art of Henry Darger), la maison rouge, Paris
2004
Andererseits: Die Phantastik, Landesgalerie am Obero sterreichischen Landesmuseum, Linz
Henry Darger, Galerie St. Etienne, New York, NY
2003
Visions Realized: The Paintings and Process of Henry Darger, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal, the Watari-Um Museum of Contemporary Art,Tokyo
2002
Darger: the Henry Darger Collection, The American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Studies and Sketches: Henry Darger, Eva and Morris Feld Gallery, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2001
Disasters of War, P.S.1/MoMA, New York, NY
2000
Henry Darger: Realms of the Unreal, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999
Henry Darger and His Realms, Galerie St. Etienne New York, NY
1996 – 98
Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA, Museum of American Folk
Art, New York, NY, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, Chicago Public Library, Chicago , IL, Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts, San Francisco, CA
1996
Dans les Royaumes del'Irréel, Collection de l'art brut and other venues Lausanne, Switzerland
Art in Chicago 1945 - 1995, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
1987
Henry Darger, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY
Henry Darger, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY
1982
Henry Darger: Realms of the Unreal, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY
1980
The Drawings of Henry Darger, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY
1977
The Realms of the Unreal, Hyde Park Art Center Chicago, IL




Selected Group Exhibits
2009-2010
Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2009
In Through the Out Door, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
2008-09
Messages & Magic: 100 years of Collage and Assemblage in American Art
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2008
Glossolalia, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
The World Needs a Narrative, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin
Vocabularies of Metaphor: More Stories, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
2007
Effigies, Stuart Shave Modern Art, London, UK (9/7 - 10/4)
The Writer's Brush, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY (9/11-10/27)
Art Brussels Contemporary Art Fair, Andrew Edlin Gallery
2006–07
A Secret Service, (Hayward Gallery Touring Project, London), Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK,
Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, UK
Into Me/Out Of Me, P.S. 1 /MoMA, New York, NY , KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin
Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection, Tate Britain, London
Inner Worlds Outside, Fundacion La Caixa, Madrid, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2005
Realms of Creation: Wölfli & Darger, Side by Side, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Mixed-Up Childhood, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
2003
Splat Boom Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston MA
Art Brut, Neuve Invention and Outsider Art, Andrew Edlin Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
2002
Cathy Wilkes - Henry J. Darger, Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Zurich
Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
2001
The First 10 Years: Selected Works from the Collection, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
1999
The Modern Child, Galerie St. Etienne, New York, NY
1998 – 99
Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology, (A traveling exhibit including nine Darger pieces)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY
Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1996
Art in Chicago 1945 - 1995, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
1995
A World of Their Own, Twentieth Century American Folk Art, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
1992
Parallel Visions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid, Kunsthalle
Basel, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
1981
Transmitters: The Isolate Artist in America, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1979
Outsider Art in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL
Outsiders, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London


Books and Catalogues
Henry Darger: Selected Art and Writings, by Michael Bonesteel (Rizzoli, 2000),
Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal, by John M. MacGregor (Delano Greenridge Editions, 2002)
Sound and Fury: The Art of Henry Darger, exhibition catalog la maison rouge exhibition, Paris, 2006 (Andrew Edlin Gallery)
Inner Worlds Outside, Exhibition Catalogue, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2006

Filmography
In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004, Jessica Yu