Men an Explanation: Henry Darger and Pablo Picasso

In this episode, Tom and Tim start with Henry Darger- the kind of artist you’re supposed to not want to be, and get to Picasso, the kind you’re supposed to want to be! We unpack it a little, and might come back to this.Ends with a reading from John Berger’s The Success and Failure of PicassoThanks for listening!00:00 - Henry Darger 01:28 - Mythic Henry Darger is not who you want to be3:00 - The Vivian Girls and the mythos3:45 - Tom's connection to Darger and the discovery of the Darger work6:00 - "Henry would just scurry" + his life9:14 - William Blake, rejected and "crazy". Mad and bitter11:30 - Creative impulses and art school12:00 - "You want to be Picasso"13:00 - John Berger's The Success and Failure of Picasso14:00 - Late era drawings no one talks about the work15:55 - Joseph Campbell on Picasso, how do you keep going, when you were so accomplished at 13 and 14 years old?17:00 - Darger's full life17:50 - We create our own experience to develop from19:00 - "He's just one of those people"20:00 - William Blake, unaccepted20:30 - Blake's nemesis21:30 - Blake's isolation23:45 - Darger had no centering principle24:45 - Darger, impenetrable, Blake not so much 26:00 - Donald Ault, Blake scholar and Uncle Scrooge scholar27:00 - Tom's reading corner: The Success and Failure of Picasso by John Berger33:21 - Portrait of Ms. HP and Nude Dressing Her Hair35:40 - Sees self in women, can only be known via sex, he returns sex to nature38:40 - Last great works, he has only ever expressed sensations through his own body41:45 - Picasso, communist44:20 - Picasso, King of Californie49:20 - The final 180 drawings. The body ages and the imagination does not. He envies the monkey. The very idea of art attacked by nature. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tomhart.substack.com