Adolf Wölfli

Life & Legacy

Adolf Wölfli (February 29, 1864 – November 6, 1930) was a Swiss schizophrenic visual artist who was one of the first artists to be associated with the Art Brut (i.e. "rough" or "raw") or outsider art label. After being imprisoned for the molestation of a 5-year-old child, and a string of later attempted sexual assaults of children, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent most of his life confined to the Waldau psychiatric clinic in Bern, where he began his art.
His paintings and drawings include texts, numerical calculations, musical notation, and geometric symbols, all of which he meticulously numbered, dated and organized into handmade books consisting of approximately 25,000 pages. His compositions are noted for their detailed structure and organization.
His work is largely autobiographical and mythologizes himself in the form of multiple identities including "Saint Adolf Great Great God", a planetary ruler.