Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930)

Drawings

Adolf Wölfli became famous exclusively on the basis of his "bread art" or single-sheet drawings. It was these works Morgenthaler published in his monograph in 1921, which Hans Prinzhorn knew and which Jean Dubuffet saw and acquired on his trip through Switzerland. These works were the in Dubuffet's collection which the surrealists admired. They were also the works exhibited in a few shows from 1945 through documenta 5 in 1972.

The real extent and character of his drawings and his collages became public only with the first large exhibition of Adolf Wölfli’s work that went on tour from 1976 to 1980. The accompanying catalogue offered the first detailed introduction into Wölfli’s art and vision.

Today we distinguish between to groups of drawings: the ones made to illustrate his writings and the so-called bread art that could be sold individually. The drawings of the writings are again subdivided into the five parts that form Wölfli’s narrative.

In 1975, the Swiss artist Markus Raetz outlined an inventory of Wölfli's vocabulary of forms in a wölflish manner. You can download it on the right side!