Heinrich Anton Müller

Heinrich Anton Müller ( * January 22, 1869 () in Versailles ();? † May 10, 1930 in Münsingen ( Berne) ) was a Swiss artist. He is considered one of the most important representatives of Art Brut.

Life

About the date and place of Heinrich Anton Müller's birth, there is no standardized information. According to some authors he was born in 1865 in Gstaad, according to others in 1869 in Versailles. Later he moved to Vaud and married there. Little is known about the early years of his life. Professional Müller has worked in the wine. In his spare time he is engaged in the design and construction of various machines, which are intended to facilitate the work of the Rebbauers. One of his inventions in 1903 assigned a patent. Whether this Rebveredlungsmaschine but was actually built is not known. Artistic activities or interests are not detectable from the time of his youth.

1906 Heinrich Anton Müller is incapacitated and taken to the insane asylum Münsingen, where he is to remain until the end of his life. According to the director of the nursing home, Dr. Rudolf Wyss were with him symptoms of a mental disorder after the invention of Rebbaumaschine observed: Müller " neglected the family, no longer works and wanders around aimlessly ." He is haunted by hallucinations and seizures megalomaniac, is called " Papa Dieu " and " L' Eternel ".

Only after a prolonged catatonic phase that follows his hospitalization, Müller began in 1914 to work artistically. In this first creative period gives rise to various kinetic sculptures made of waste materials. In parallel, Müller working on a perpetual motion machine. He often destroyed even his work. Immediately after the artist 1917 gets a paintbox, he begins to make paintings and drawings. In 1923, he suddenly stops for no apparent reason with all the artistic activities. Two years later, after a serious illness he reaches back to the pin. In the last years of his life, his condition deteriorated and he spends a long time in order to consider a built him of stones and earth sculpture by a papiernes telescope.

Heinrich Anton Müller died in 1930 in the sanatorium Münsingen.

Works

In his sculptural objects used Heinrich Anton Müller different waste materials (old board, rags ) as well as stones, earth and your own body secretions. His peculiar constructions served no purpose: they only produced movement. The entire machine work is no longer preserved. What remains are a few photos and a description in the context of the medical history.

The plastic image obtained consists of about 45 works. Also as used herein, Müller old cardboard as Malunterlage. In his paintings often occur humans, animals and plants in addition to anthropomorphic creatures.

Reception

Along with Adolf Wölfli and Aloïse Heinrich Anton Müller is one of the most famous representatives of Art Brut.

First published works of the artist Hans Prinzhorn's " Artistry of the Mentally Ill". This was followed by exhibitions under the direction of Jean Dubuffet (1949, Paris), Pontus Hultén and Harald Szeemann. The latter introduced in 1972 Müller ago at documenta 5 in Kassel. Artists such as Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri interested vividly for the plastic work and the person miller.

The motives of the drawings and paintings of the artist are often interpreted as an expression of the connection between man and nature and the shapeshifting, which both are subject. The use of waste materials as well as the " aimless " business of the machines are seen as appreciation of the useless, an aspect that is associated with the reflection of the artist on his own marginal position in society.