Life

Biografie

Adolf Wölfli in his cell beside the pillow of his books, 1921

Adolf Wölfli with paper trumpet, ca. 1926

Adolf Wölfli now ranks as one of the early twentieth century’s most remarkable artists, whose works are exhibited all over the world. Yet he started drawing only at the age of thirty-five, when as a patient at Waldau Psychiatric Hospital near Bern he became a writer, composer, and artist. His mission was to reinvent not only his own life, but also the world. Thus he devoted the 25,000 pages he wrote for publication to creating a spectacular childhood and a glorious future.

Born in Emmental in 1864, Adolf Wölfli grew up in great poverty in several different places. When his father deserted the family in 1870, Wölfli and his mother were plunged into poverty, leaving them with no choice but to return to their home parish of Schangnau. There, mother and son were separated and sent to work on nearby farms. Wölfli’s mother died in 1874 and her orphaned son grew up in the most wretched circumstances as a child laborer indentured to various farming families in the Emmental.

Wölfli spent the years 1880–1890 as an itinerant day laborer living in various places. In 1890 he was convicted of attempted rape and sentenced to two years in prison. On his release he became even more of a loner than before. After a second attempted rape in 1895, he was committed to Waldau Psychiatric Hospital, initially for the purpose of determining his soundness of mind. There he was diagnosed with Dementia paranoides (schizophrenia).

At his doctors’ behest, Wölfli composed his first life story in 1895, shortly after being admitted to Waldau. He started drawing in 1899, although the first drawings of his to be preserved—just fifty of 200–300 in total—date from 1904 and 1905. Wölfli’s 3000-page fictional autobiography called Von der Wiege bis zum Graab (From the Cradle to the Grave) was penned between 1908 and 1912. This work, composed as a travelogue, transforms his miserable early years into a glorious childhood. Between 1912 and 1916 he worked on the Geografisch und allgebräische Hefte (Geographic and Algebraic Books) (running to 3000 pages in total), in which he describes the advent of the future “Skt.Adolf-Riesen-Schöpfung” (St. Adolf Giant Creation). From 1916 onward, Wölfli produced series of drawings that he gave or sold to his doctors, hospital staff, visitors, and his first collectors. The Books of Songs and Dances (c. 7000 pages) hailing Wölfli’s future creation date from the period 1917 to 1922. The first study of Wölfli’s work, Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (A Mental Patient as Artist) was published by Walter Morgenthaler in 1921. Among its most enthusiastic readers were Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé. Between 1924 and 1928 Wölfli worked on his Album Books with Dances and Marches (5000 pages), which are again paeans to the glorious world to come. The years 1928 to 1930 were devoted to an unfinished Trauer-Marsch (Funeral March): an over 8000-page-long, almost abstract requiem.

Adolf Wölfli died of stomach cancer on 30 November 1930.

Biography

1864
1864 Adolf Wölfli is born on 29 February 1864 in Bowil, Emmental (Canton Berne, Switzerland), the youngest of seven children of Jakob and Anna Wölfli-Feuz. The same year, the family moves to Bern. The father, a stonecutter, is an alcoholic. Wölfli grows up in dire poverty.

about 1870
Wölfli´s father abandons the family. The mother earns their livelihood as a washerwoman.

1872
Together with his ailing mother, Wölfli is resettled by the authorities is his home community Schangnau, in Emmental. The community takes over their financial support. Mother and son are separated and send to work at different farmers for food and lodging.

1873
Death of Wölfli´s mother.

1873–79
Wölfli lives as a hireling with several farmers in Schangnau under very hard working conditions and social degradation.

1880–89
He works as a farmhand in various locations in Emmental. A romance is forbidden and broken up for social reasons by the parents of the girl. Wölfli moves to Bern and works there and in the countryside of the Cantons Berne and Neuchâtel as handy-man and haycutter.

1883–84
He receives infantry recruit training in Lucerne.

1890
Wölfli is arrested for attempted sexual assault on two young girls (fourteen and five) and sentenced to two years in prison.

1890–92
He is imprisoned in the St.Johannsen prison in Canton Berne.

1892–95
Wölfli works as laborer in Berne and around in increasing social isolation and hardship.

1895
Wölfli is again arrested for attempting to molest a 31⁄2-year-old girl. In order to examine his mental accountability, he is commited to the Waldau Mental Asylum, near Bern, for evaluation. There he is diagnosed as a schizophrenic. He remains a patient there until his death in 1930.

1899
Wölfli begins to draw spontaneously.

1904–06
First preserved drawings forming a unified group and marked by high-quality draftmanship and artistic vision (pencil, fifty from presumably two hundred to three hundred drawings). Wölfli signs with "Adolf Wölfli, Composer".

1907
First preserved color drawings.
Walter Morgenthaler arrives as an young psychiatrist resident at Waldau, where he works, with interruptions, in different positions until 1919.

1908
Wölfli begins to work on his narrative oeuvre, which ends with his death in 1930 after 25´000 pages.

1908–12
Writes „From the Cradle to the Grave; Or; Through Work and Sweat, Suffering and Ordeals, Even through Prayer into Damnation. Manifold Travels, Adventures, Accidental Calamities, Hunting and Other Experiences of a Lost Soul Erring about the Globe; or, A Servant of God without a Head Is More Miserable Than the Most Miserable of Wretches.“ (9 books): Wölfli turns his dramatic and miserable childhood into a magnificent travelog illustrated by manifold color drawings.

1912–16
Writes „Geographic and Algebraic Books“ (7 books). In a series of testaments to his real nephew Rudolf Wölfli describes how to build the future „Saint Adolf-Giant-Creation“: a huge „capital fortune“ will allow Rudolf to purchase, rename, urbanize, and appropriate the planet and finally the entire cosmos. The textes (over 3´000 pages) are illustrated with number- and music-pictures.

since 1916
Wölfli signs his works „St. Adolf II.“ He begins the systematic production of his so-called Bread-Art, single-sheet drawings designed for sale, which he continues to make until 1930.

1917–22
Writes „Books with Songs and Dances“ (6 books): Wölfli celebrates his „Saint Adolf-Giant-Creation“ for thousands of additional pages, in sound poetry, songs, musical scales (do, re, mi, fa...), and collages.

1919
Walter Morgenthaler leaves Waldau at the end of the year. Dr. Marie von Ries becomes Wölfli´s new psychiatrist.

1921
Walter Morgenthaler publishes his monograph on Wölfli´s life and work „Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler“ („Madness and Art. The Life and Works of Adolf Wölfli“). In connection with the presentation of Morgenthaler's study, works of Wölfli are for the first time publicly exhibited in bookshops in Bern, Basel and Zurich.

1924–28
Writes eight books, among them four „Album-Books with Dances and Marches“ with musical compositions written in solfège and illustrated with drawings and collages.

1928–30
Wölfli writes the „Funeral March“, his requiem, which consists of 16 books with 8404 pages (unfinished). Wölfli recapitulates central motifs of his world system in the reduced form of keywords and collages, weaving them into a infinite tapestry of sounds, ryhtms, and pictures.

1930
Adolf Wölfli dies on 6 November of intestinal cancer.

The fate of Wölfli's work after his death

1930–1975
Jean Dubuffet, the French artist and founder of „Art Brut,“ discovered the work of Adolf Wölfli in 1945 and called him „le grand Wölfli.“ The Surrealist André Breton considered Wölfli´s oeuvre „one of the three of four most important works of the twentieth century,“ and the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann showed a number of his pieces in 1972 at „documenta 5,“ the renown contemporary art exhibition in Kassel, Germany.

In 1972 the Adolf Wöfli Foundation was founded in Berne and since them, its collection is deposited in the Museum of Fine Art Bern. It contains the entire Wölfli estate as well as private gifts: 44 volumes of his writings, 6 notebooks and 250 single sheet drawings. The purpose of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation is to maintain, keep an inventary of Adolf Wölfli´s works, as well as to present his oeuvres to the public through exhibitions and publications.

Exhibitions

Drawings by Adolf Wölfli were first exhibited in public in 1921 and hence during the artist’s lifetime. After his death, the French artist Jean Dubuffet included works by Wölfli in his shows of the collection of the Compagnie de l’Art Brut in Paris. Wölfli’s drawings also featured in Harald Szeemann’s 1963 show Bildnerei der Geisteskranken at Kunsthalle Bern. The first major exhibition of the artist’s work opened at Kunstmuseum Bern in 1976, after which it was shown all over Europe and the USA. Japanese art-lovers were acquainted with his work in the 2017 exhibition, Adolf Wölfli. A Kingdom of 25,000 Pages in Tokyo.

One-Man Exhibitions

1921
Zeichnungen eines Geisteskranken: Zeichnungen aus der Sammlung W. Morgenthaler. Buchhandlung Ernst Bircher, Bern.

1948
Adolf Wölfli. Compagnie de l´Art Brut, Rue de l´Université, Paris, October.

1967
Adolf Wölfli. Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg, May–July.

1971
Adolf Wölfli, 1864–1930: Werke aus einer Privatsammlung, Kupferstichkabinett, Museum of Fine Arts, Basel, January–April.

1974
Adolf Wölfli, 1864–1930: Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler, Historisches Museum, St. Gall, Switzerland, February-March.

1975
Die Bildnerei der Geisteskranken: Das Beispiel Adolf Wölfli, Zuger Kunstverein Burgbachkeller, Zug, Switzerland, April–May.

1976
Adolf Wölfli. Traveling exhibition, 1976–1980: Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, June-September 1976; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, October-November; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, December 1976–January 1977; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, January–March 1977; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, March–May 1977; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, May–June 1977; Kölner Kunstverein, Cologne, July–August 1977; Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, November–December 1977; Kulturhaus Graz, Austria, December 1977–January 1978; Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Mass., September-October 1978; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, November 1978–January 1979; Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, January–March 1979; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, May–June 1979; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, January–April 1980.

1980
Adolf Wölfli – Bilder aus einer Imaginären Welt. Ausbildungszentrum SBG, Wolfsberg, Switzerland, April–May.
Adolf Wölfli. Stockalperpalast, Brig, Switzerland, December 1980–January 1981.

1981
Adolf Wölfli: Cahier Géographique No. 12. Collection de l´Art Brut, Lausanne, June-September.

1982
Adolf Wölfli. Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, October-November.

1984
Adolf Wölfli. Werke aus einer Privatsammlung. Galerie Jürg Stuker, Bern, May-June.

1985
Adolf Wölfli: Von der Wiege bis zum Graab. Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, September-October.
Adolf Wölfli, 1864–1930. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, November 1985–February 1986.

1987
Adolf Wölfli: Zeichnungen, 1904–1906. Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, March–May.

1988
Adolf Wölfli. Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, November-December.
The Other Side of the Moon: The World of Adolf Wölfli. Traveling exhibition, 1988–1989: Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, September–October 1988; Grey Gallery, New York University, New York, November–December 1988; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library, Regina, Saskatchewan, February–March 1989; University of California, Berkeley, May–June 1989; University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, September–November 1989.

1990
Adolf Wölfli: Zeichnungen, 1904–1906, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland, April-July.

1991
Adolf Wölfli. Dessinateur--Compositeur. Traveling exhibition, 1991–1992: Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, March-May 1991; Collection de l´Art Brut, Lausanne, June-August 1991; Musée Picasso, Antibes, October 1991; Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gall, Switzerland, November 1991–February 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, March–April 1992.

1992
Adolf Wölfli. Zafer Carsisi Galerisi, Sanart´ 92, Ankara, Turkey, September-October.

1993
Adolf Wölfli. Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, February.

1995
Adolf Wölfli, 1864–1930. Kosmische Reizen. De Stadshof, Museum voor naïeve en outsider kunst, Zwolle, Netherlands, February-May.
Adolf Wölfli: Von der Wiege bis zum Graab. Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gall, Switzerland, September–November.

1996
Aloïse – Adolf Wölfli. Zwei Klassiker der Art Brut, Kulturabteilung Bayer, Erholungshaus, Leverkusen, September–October
Adolf Wölfli. Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria, December 1996–February 1997.

1998
Adolf Wölfli – Die Schenkung Ernst und Maria Elisabeth Mumenthaler-Fischer. Traveling exhibition 1998–1999, Museum of Fine Arts Basel, January-April; Museum Schloss Moyland, Germany, January-February 1999; Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany.
Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930). Sala 1, Rome, Italy, October-November; Centro Culturale Svizzero, Milan, Italy, November-December.

1999
Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930). Zeichnungen, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, January-February
Albert Anker – Adolf Wölfli. Parallele Welten, Kunstmuseum Bern, Mai–August

2000
Adolf Wölfli: Memorandumm (1926). Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, August-November.

2001
Kopfwelten. Adolf Wölfli. Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg/Vienna, October 2001–January 2002.

2003
St.Adolf-Giant-Creation: The Art of Adolf Wölfli, American Folk Art Museum, New York, 25.2.–24.4.2003

2005
Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930), LaCabane, Murten, Switzerland, April–May

2008
Adolf Wölfli Universum. Eine Retrospektive, Kunstmuseum Bern, 1. Februar 2008–18. Mai 2008.

2011
Adolf Wölfli Univers, LaM, Lille métropole musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve d’Ascq/Lille, 09.04.–03.07.2011
Adolf Wölfl in Ingelheim/Internationale Tage Ingelheim 2011, Altes Rathaus, Ingelheim am Rhein, 03.05.–10.07.2011

Bibliography

In view of the large number of works that might be listed in an Adolf Wölfli bibliography, the Stiftung has decided to confine itself only to the most important titles, which are listed below. The full bibliography of publications from 1921 to the present, listed in both chronological and alphabetical order, is available electronically. Kindly send us the details of any works you wish to have added.

The Art of Adolf Wölfli: St. Adolf-Giant-Creation, with contributions by Daniel Baumann, Edward M.Gomez, Elka Spoerri, Gerard C, Wertkin and texts by Adolf Wölfli (translation Andrew Shields), American Folk Art Museum, New York, in association with Princeton University Press, 2003.

Adolf Wölfli - Writer, Poet, Dratsman, Composer, edited by Elka Spoerri, with contributions by Daniel Baumann, Marie-Françoise Chanfrault-Duchet, Josef Helfenstein, Louis A. Sass, Elka Spoerri, Harald Szeemann, Allen S. Weiss, Max Wechsler, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1997.

Adolf Wölfli, exhibition catalog, with contributions by Alfred Bader, Peter Bichsel, Hemmo Müller-Suur, Elsbeth Pulver, Elka Spoerri, Theodor Spoerri, Harald Szeemann and others, edited by the Adolf Wölfli Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts Bern 1976.

Walter Morgenthaler, Madness and Art. The Life and Works of Adolf Wölfli, translation and introduction by Aaron H. Esman, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1992.