"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see," said Edgar Degas. Some of the others who have seen the paintings of Eugene Gabritschevsky have claimed to see in them pictures of flatness and lack of emotion; yet I see signs of emotion everywhere in his work. Affectionate regard for the crested bird (above), a witty rethinking of the butterfly, based on his experiences with Rorschach ink blot tests while in a sanitarium, and a fantastic bestiary of tiny creatures based on his years studying insects under a microscope: three instances, but there are others of a darker bent.
Gabritschevsky's paintings are filled with living presences, some human, others all manner of hybrid fantastical beings. Eyes, in particular, are everywhere, in faces or even embodied in plants composed of nothing but eyes, a sad commentary it seems on the loneliness of a solitary man watched constantly by doctors and nurses yet disconnected from human intimacy. The light in Gabritschevsky's pictures that comes from below, as in a theater, and the frequent suggestion of a proscenium arch serve to underline the dichotomy between presence and disconnection.
Some critics have dismissed Gabritschevsky's human characters as grotesques but I disagree; only a lack of empathy can explain such blindness. Only look at the man and woman in the untitled painting (above). Together yet apart, their bodies contorted with opposing impulses of fear and longing, they have both stretched their heads away from each other yet make no move to leave their shared space.
Some critics have dismissed Gabritschevsky's human characters as grotesques but I disagree; only a lack of empathy can explain such blindness. Only look at the man and woman in the untitled painting (above). Together yet apart, their bodies contorted with opposing impulses of fear and longing, they have both stretched their heads away from each other yet make no move to leave their shared space.
Gabritschevksy was born into an upper class Muscovite family in 1893. Gabritschevky's father was an internationally known bacteriologist; he died when Eugen was fourteen, the first of a series of shocks that challenged a precarious emotional equilibrium. The revolutionary violence outside in the city streets only underlined the caesura between childhood and whatever would come next. A privileged education given by tutors including study of languages and a love of drawing were sources of strength.
Gabritschevsky studied biology at the University of Moscow, fascinated by the world revealed by a microscope. He took a research position at Columbia University in 1924 but two years later returned to Europe, settling in Munich where his brother Georg now lived. A failed love affair with a Frenchwoman and the death of his mother in 1930 were setbacks but Gabritschevsky took a new position at the University of Edinburgh. The next year Gabritschevsky had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in Zurich, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Eventually he ws able to be transferred to a hospital near Munich where he spent most of his remaining life. One more shock was in store; during WWII mental patients were locked in underground cellars by order of the Nazi authorities, with what effect on already scarred sensibilities we can only imagine.
He lived out his lonely existence but painting expanded to fill the solitary hours with a stunning output of works unconstrained by the dictates of the art world; what remained a constant was the impression of a spirit ill at ease in the world. If it were not insensitive and cruel, we could see in Gabritschevsky's later work a mind set free, but Gabritschevsky himself is there to remind us not to be so facile, with these words from a letter written in 1946 where he assessed his paintings as: “merely misshapen offspring of ideas that are more or less true.” Gabritschevsky continued to paint up until his death on April 5, 1979.
He lived out his lonely existence but painting expanded to fill the solitary hours with a stunning output of works unconstrained by the dictates of the art world; what remained a constant was the impression of a spirit ill at ease in the world. If it were not insensitive and cruel, we could see in Gabritschevsky's later work a mind set free, but Gabritschevsky himself is there to remind us not to be so facile, with these words from a letter written in 1946 where he assessed his paintings as: “merely misshapen offspring of ideas that are more or less true.” Gabritschevsky continued to paint up until his death on April 5, 1979.
It was Georg who sent a few photographs of his brother's work to Jean Dubuffet in 1948, at a time when Dubuffet himself was restless and searching for new sources of artistic inspiration. Already under the spell of Artistry of the Mentally Ill (1922), an influenital work written by German art historian-turned-psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn. Dubuffet had coined the term Art brut and he thought he had found an example in Gabritschevsky. The term Art brut has never been without problems, in its opposition of academic tradition to self-taught and otherwise socially disadvantaged artists. And although Dubuffet went on to purchase many of Gabritschevsky’s works for hisCompagnie de l’ArtBrut and to recommend the older artist to his dealer friends, the one-sided connection with the famous Dubuffet has continued to color views of Gabritschevsky.
Eugene Gabritshcevsky (1893-1979) is on view at La Maison Rouge, a private foundation specializing in contemporary art, July 8–September 18.
Images: All images are by Eugen Gabritschevsky and all titles are attributed by the curators.
1. Crested Bird, 1942.
2. untitled, 1949, Collection Chave, Vence.
2. untitled, 1949, Collection Chave, Vence.
3. untitled, 1942, Collection Chave, Vence.
4. untitled, 1939, Ville de Lausanne.
4. untitled, 1939, Ville de Lausanne.