Untitled (6 figures)
21 15/16 x 16 1/16 in. (55.8 x 40.8 cm)
Eddie Arning
American
(Kenney, Texas, 1899 - 1993, Texas)
Object Type:
Drawing
Medium and Support:
Pastel on paper
Credit Line:
Bequest of Sylvia Davis
Accession Number:
2006.33
Location: Not currently on view
Born into a Texas farming family, Eddie Arning spent most of his adult life in hospitals and institutions with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. In 1964, at the age of 66, he was given crayons and paper as part of an early art therapy project. Over the next nine years, he produced more than 2,000 drawings, many based on magazine advertisements he ripped out and saved. His hostile attitude caused him to be removed from the mental hospital in 1973; he lived the remainder of his life in a nursing home without ever again creating a piece of art.
[Label text from It Came From the Vault exhibition, 2013]