This week's Friday Find-Day finds us dodging anthropomorphized cats in the proto-psychedelic mind-gardens of Schizo-wunderkind and cleft-lipped weirdo Louis Wain.
Louis Wain was born in a time before Outsider Art was a "thing"--well before Henry Darger died alone and unappreciated and then they made that documentary about him and the Vivian Girls named their band after him--all of which, by the way, Darger probably would have appreciated more when he was alive and drawing little girls with penii in his one-room Chicago apartment.
But Darger is not who we're here to discuss on this very not-spring-like first Friday of spring. If Outsider Art can be plotted like events are plotted in the Bible (and the Western world at large), Louis Wain would be the Moses to Darger's Jesus--his sad, slow-descent-into-madness-filled story occurring B.D. (Before Darger). That's not to say he wasn't appreciated in his time. According to Wikipedia, H.G. Wells (the Time Machine dude) had this to say about Wain:
"He has made the cat his own. He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves."
That's pretty high-praise coming from a high-profile author for someone known as "that guy who does weird cat pictures."
According to lore, Wain started out illustrating cats for his wife. They then became an obsession--until the cat renderings became more and more crazy-looking. Some say, it's clear from the paintings that Wain's mind had slowly deteriorated into madness and that he was schizophrenic, while others claim he had Ass-burger's. Either way, his output is pretty effing cool.
So, enjoy!
link to some of Wain's work
And, if you get a chance, go see the new Harmony Korine movie, Spring Breakers, starring James Franco as the Willem-Dafoe's-character-from-Wild-at-Heart (yeah, don't click that link unless you don't want to sleep tonight or ever again) version of Florida party-rapper Riff Raff.
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