Henry Darger show

The Chicago outsider artist Henry Darger had a special opening today at the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago. Along with a show of his works, the center also opened the Henry Darger Room, a to-scale recreation of the room in northern Chicago where Darger lived for more than 40 years drawing his magnum opus The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion (In the Realms of the Unreal for short). You can walk in and literally be in Darger's cramped but vibrant room--it includes a reconstruction of his fireplace and is scattered with other objects salvaged from his (now-demolished) room in the North Side--old magazines, crayons, paints, notebooks, newspapers, etc. It's reminiscent of walking into the little hotel room Van Gogh inhabited in Auvers-sur-Oise--a little claustrophobic, but full of creative energy. Above is a photo of people studying one of Darger's works from In the Realms of the Unreal. Same below. My Blackberry's camera obviously doesn't do these justice, so please just go see a Darger exhibit in person if you get the chance! The dude was straight up crazy.