The Other Side of the Avant-Garde

From 24 September to 10 January 2027, the Recoletos Hall at the MAPFRE Foundation will be hosting an exhibition that analyses the relationship between avant-garde art and works created by psychiatric patients, considered here as the threshold that avant-garde artists crossed in their renewal of modern art.

Curated by Pilar Soler, the exhibition is based on the book Expressions of Madness (1922) by the German psychiatrist and art historian, Hans Prinzhorn (1886–1933), as a result of his study of the collection of works by patients with mental illnesses at the hospital in Heidelberg.

Prinzhorn’s publication gave visibility and artistic dignity to the creations by these patients and questioned the traditional boundaries of art. Furthermore, this exhibition addresses the cultural and artistic context in which the book was conceived, as well as its subsequent influence on diverse avant-garde movements and its major role in the emergence of Art brut.

Image Credit:

• Else Blankenhorn. Untitled [Red Jockey], c. 1917. Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany