Hyperallergic – One hundred and twenty-five years ago today, Henry Darger was born at home to a poor couple in Chicago. His mother died four years later; not long afterwards, Darger was separated from his sick father and placed in a Catholic boys’ home, followed by an asylum. When he was 16, Darger managed to escape and begin the rest of his life: a mostly solitary existence that consisted of janitorial and other menial labor at Chicago hospitals, attending mass, and creating what’s now considered some of the greatest art of the 20th century. – read more
