Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930)
Adolf Wölfli is considered one of the most important representatives of Art brut. He began drawing, writing and composing at the age of 35 in the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern. In this room, various aspects of Wölfli's work are shown in changing presentations.
Current Exhibition: The Funeral March
Meret Matter reads an excerpt from Adolf Wölfli's Funeral March, 15 min.
The Funeral March (1928–1930)
The final work from Adolf Wölfli’s Creation
The Trauer=Marsch (Funeral March) marks the conclusion of Wölfli’s poetic work that he had begun in 1908 with the story Von der Wiege bis zum Graab (From the Cradle to the Grave) and which subsequently grew into a universe, comprising 25’000 pages in total. Wölfli’s final work involves over 8300 pages, bound in 16 volumes. The unfinished piece was created during an intensively creative period between 1928 and 1930.
‘I’ve been working on a very beautiful and powerful Trauer=Marsch (Funeral March) for many years, which comprises a total of 8850 beautiful marching songs. 7150 songs have already been done. In between them there are numerous beautiful poems, riddles, humoresques, and jokes: travel tales! Hunting tales and war tales! And a respectable number of beautiful images. The whole work, once it's finished, will have a splendid value of 55’000 Swiss francs.’
(Quote from Adolf Wölfli, 1929)
Wölfli conceived the Funeral March as a personal requiem that transformed itself into a continuous sound poem. The ‘marching songs’ it contains are not notated using solmisations, as in the previous volumes, but unfold as sonic structures. Using key words from his narrative universe as points of departure, Wölfli developed rhymes on ‘Wiiga’ (vernacular for cradle), a word located at the beginning of both his life and writing activities.
From Funeral March, page 3434 to 3435:
‘16. Chehr:1. Wiiga. 16.Cher:1. Giiiga. 16.Cher:1. Stiiiga. 16.Cher:1. Schiiiga. 16.Cher:1. Ziiiga. 16.Cher:1. Fliiiga. 16. Chehr:1. Fiiiga. 16. Chehr:1. Nit a Chida. 16.Cher:1. Siba Gida. 16.Cher:1. Riiiga. 16.Cher:1. Biiiga. 16.Cher:1. Liiiga. 16.Cher:1. Opf'r=Stok'r. 16.Cher:1. Chriiiga. 16.Cher:1. Siiiga. 16.Cher:1. Triiiga. 16.Cher:1. Hopptiquax'r. 16.Cher:1. Waaahra. 16.Cher:1. Annnah. 16.Cher:1. Saaah'ra. 16.Cher:1. Hammah. 16.Cher:1. Haaahra. 16.Cher:1. Mammah. 16.Cher:1. Haaahra. 16.Cher:1. Zammah. 16.Cher:1. Kaaahra. 16.Cher:1. Wammah. 16.Cher:1. Schaara. 16.Chehr:1 Schammah. 16.Cher:1. S'wittara witt. 16. Ist, etzak: 68,718,476,636, Schläg. Skt.Adolf II., Bern, Schweiz.’
The Funeral March contains only a few drawings, instead being illustrated by over a thousand collages from magazines, which when leafed through combine to form animmense panorama, a pictorial world reflecting Wölfli’s desires and visions. In his final work, Wölfli once again evoked, in a condensed form, the central subjects of his creation of a world and in doing so conceived a captivating, endlessly recurring mantra capable of releasing an impressively suggestive power.
The current presentation juxtaposes the double-page spreads from the Funeral March with a selection of drawings that were created concurrently. These are examples of what is known as his ‘Brotkunst’ (bread art), which Wölfli produced for sale alongside his writings. They bear witness to Wölfli’s daily life, which shortly before his death was dominated by his battle against stomach cancer.
Hilar Stadler, Curator Adolf Wölfli Foundation
Biography
Born in 1864 in the Emmental, Wölfli grows up under deprived circumstances in and around Bern. In 1870 the father abandons the family. Wölfli and his mother become destitute and are forced to resettle in the community of Schangnau. In 1874 Wölfli’s mother dies and her youngest son grows up in degrading circumstances as an indentured child laborer in various farming families in Schangnau. Between 1880 and 1890 Wölfli finds work as farmhand, laborer and itinerant worker. In 1890 he is condemned to two years of prison for attempting to molest young girls. After being released from prison, he becomes more and more isolated. In 1895 he is sent to the Waldau clinic near Bern in order to examine his mental accountability. He is diagnosed with ‘dementia paranoides’ (schizophrenia).
In 1895, on the request of the doctors, Wölfli writes his first life story. In 1899 he begins to draw. The first drawings to be saved date from 1904 and 1905. From 1908 to 1912 Wölfli writes his fictitious autobiography From the Cradle to the Grave (3000 pages). From 1912 to 1916 Wölfli works on the Geographical and Algebraic Books (3000 pages). They describe the creation of the future St. Adolf=Giant=Creation. Around 1916 Wölfli starts his series of drawings that he offers or sells to doctors, employees, visitors and the first collectors. From 1917 to 1922 he works on the Books with Songs and Dances (7000 pages) where he celebrates and sings of his world to come. In 1921 Walter Morgenthaler publishes Adolf Wölfli, Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (Madness and Art. The Life and Works of Adolf Wölfli, translated and publ. 1992), his groundbreaking study read by Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé among others. From 1924 to 1928 Wölfli writes the Album Books with Dances and Marches (around 5000 pages) in which he sings further praises of his world. From 1928 to 1930 he develops the (unfinished) Funeral=March. On November 30, 1930, Wölfli dies of stomach cancer.