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. Since 1975, his extensive estate has been administered by the Adolf Wölfli Foundation, which analyses it scientifically and makes it accessible to the public in publications and exhibitions.The foundation has been housed in the Kunstmuseum Bern since its inception. In this room, it presents various aspects of Wölfli's work in changing presentations. 

^{LP Adolf Wölfli. Gelesen und vertont, Track 01: Musikstück transkribiert und Antree}

Adolf Wölfli signed one of his earliest drawings ‘Adolf Wölfli Composer’, later he sometimes took to referring to himself as ‘Musik=Diräktohr’ [Music Director]. Among all the various forms of art that Adolf Wölfli pursued as a multi-talented artist, music was one of his favourite forms of artistic expression, together with drawing and writing. His writing is richly decorated with countless musical scores involving polkas, marches and mazurkas. His first notations appeared around 1912 at the end of volume 11, but musical scores began playing an increasingly important role in volumes 12 and 13. Elka Spoerri, the first director of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation, considered the ‘note drawings’ as a distinct pictorial genre within Wölfli’s oeuvre.

The compositions are linked to the creation of the Skt.Adolf=Riesen=Schöpfung [St. Adolf=Giant=Creation], imagined by Wölfli as a glorious vision of the future in the Geographische und Allgebräische Hefte [Geographical and Algebraic Notebooks] (1912–1916). The musical pieces are essentially hymn-like gestures venerating his own ‘creation’, praising this new world in terms of music. As a result, the cosmos created by Wölfli was transformed, as it were, into an all-embracing sound, a resonating universe.

According to the observations of psychiatrist Walter Morgenthaler, Adolf Wölfli ‘played’ his musical pieces on his simple paper trumpet, subsequently capturing the melodies as compositions using his musical notation. This would suggest that for the artist there was a direct connection between the sung melody and its notation. Until the 1970s, it was assumed that the compositions were primarily of decorative value. Later, however, the musicians Peter Streiff and Kjell Keller discovered that the triad and cadenza structures found repeatedly in his compositions fundamentally conveyed actual musical meaning. As a result, the two produced their own interpretations of Wölfli’s scores, which were recorded in 1978 on the LP Adolf Wölfli. Gelesen und vertont (all tracks of the LP at adolfwoelfli.ch). Later studies by Eric Förster and Baudouin de Jaer confirmed the discovery, elevating Adolf Wölfli’s status as a musician and composer.

This small but representative selection of ‘note drawings’ provides insights into this unique aspect of Wölfli’s work. The occasion for this thematic display is a donation from the Wölfli & Musik society to the Adolf Wölfli Foundation, which includes around twenty compositions by contemporary composers. Since its founding in 2011, the Wölfli & Musik society has commissioned compositions that by the means of music establish a direct and contemporary connection to Wölfli’s work. One (and what perhaps will be the last) commissioned work will be added to the collection in due course. The Wölfli & Musik society has arranged for the Vienna-based composer Beat Furrer (*1954 in Schaffhausen) to create a work for a large orchestra. The piece is expected to be premiered by the Bern Symphony Orchestra during the 2026/27 season.

Hilar Stadler, Curator Adolf Wölfli Foundation

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 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.