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Madness and Modernity Mental Illness and the visual arts in Vienna 1900 Wellcome Centre Euston Rd

From:     Closed Mondays
Category: Exhibitions
Date:     08 April 2009
Time:     09:07 AM

Review:



I was attracted to this exhibition as I noted in the guardian guide that there would be paintings by
Oscar Kokoschka. There was only one, I hadn’t read carefully. There were some reproductions of Egon
Schiele's water colours, and some little pictures carefully made by Josef Karl Radler who spent most
of his life in asylums. I enjoyed seeing the heads made by Franz-Xaver Messerschmidt again, and some
other wax heads of some twin lunatics. The combination of this, the Wellcome collection of medical
apparatus upstairs, The Bell Jar (which I am finally reading) and having not spoken to any one
familiar for some thing like 24 hours combined to make me feel kind of mad and alienated. The
exhibition isn’t all its cracked up to be, but it has a few pieces and the café looks like a good
place to sit on a sunny day. 



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