August Klett, or Klotz (1866–1928), was a German outsider artist with schizophrenia and one of the "schizophrenic masters" profiled by Hans Prinzhorn in his field-defining work Artistry of the Mentally Ill. The pseudonym August Klotz (Klotz being a disparaging term for a person of low intelligence) was given by Prinzhorn.
He was born in Heilbronn. His father was a prosperous Swabian merchant, and Klotz worked in his father's business as a wine and champagne salesman for many years. Aside from a case of gonorrhea, he was healthy until an attack of influenza in 1903. After his illness he fell into a deep depression in which he heard hallucinatory voices insulting him. He attempted suicide by slashing his abdomen with a knife.
Klotz was placed in an asylum in Göppingen where his case notes describe him as engaged in art-making by August 1903. He often invented lengthy compound nouns, such as Halmdolchfischgradtropfeneweiss ("Stalk-dagger-fish-bone-drop-egg-white"), and his pictures sometimes feature shapes that have double meanings. An example is Klotz's drawing Wurmlöcher (Wormholes), which Roger Cardinal describes as depicting "a head in profile with wavy hair that incorporates fingertips, worms, and caterpillar heads. Another part of the head juxtaposes nuns and flamingoes".
Notes
Resources
- Cardinal, Roger. 1972. Outsider Art. New York, Washington: Praeger. .
- Krannert Art Museum. 1984. The Prinzhorn Collection: Selected Work from the Prinzhorn Collection of the Art of the Mentally Ill : Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, November 10, 1984 to January 6, 1985 [and others]. Champaign, Ill: University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. .
- Prinzhorn, Hans. Artistry of the mentally ill: a contribution to the psychology and psychopathology of configuration. Trans. Eric von Brockdorff. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1972. .
- http://www.stiftadmont.at/deutsch/presse/prinzhorn/KUeNSTLERBIOGRAFIEN_Handout.pdf