ABSTRACT
In The Artistry of the Mentally Ill (Bildnerei der Geisteskranken), Hans Prinzhorn attempted to develop an aesthetic theory that claimed schizophrenic artists possessed an "essential insight" that led to an art based on the artists' deepest emotions. The content of the art is often conventional and the subject matter banal, but the ideas about its aim can be unrealistic, like saving the world or being the bridge between France and Germany. There is the fear of crossing the boundary and of losing contact with reality. Prinzhorn's book The Artistry of the Mentally Ill had an enormous impact on the Expressionist and Surrealist movements of Europe in the early twentieth century. The Expressionist movement, characterised by heightened symbolic colours and exaggerated imagery, developed in different countries in Europe around 1905 and was influenced by outsider art.
