The display, entitled Madness: The Case of Marian Henel, features 11 large-format tapestries and dozens of self-portraits.
Henel’s unique art has been hailed as a significant example of work created through art therapy in psychiatric hospitals.
His largest tapestry measures over six meters in length and three meters in width.
The exhibition marks the first comprehensive monographic display of his work.
Henel, known as "the Lustful Man from Branice," spent 32 years as a patient at the Psychiatric and Neurological Hospital in Branice, located in the Opole region of southwestern Poland.
His artistic journey began in the late 1960s when he was admitted to the hospital’s Psychopathological Art Expression Workshop, founded by Stanisław Wodyński.
Initially tasked with creating tapestries based on provided designs, Henel gradually introduced his own motifs, such as demonic masks and serpents, as seen in one of his early works featuring the Latin phrase Salus aegroti suprema lex (The well-being of the patient is the highest law).
As his work evolved, Henel’s tapestries and photographs became increasingly provocative, featuring naked, overweight women, exposed buttocks, and nurses in uniforms.
These designs reflect his unrestrained exploration of sexual and demonic imagery.
Piotr Oszczanowski, director of the National Museum in Wrocław, which oversees the Ethnographic Museum, described Henel as a complex and controversial figure.
“His work presents an obsessive world without inhibition,” Oszczanowski told Polish state news agency PAP.
He added: “Henel could not control his impulses, and his art reflects an overactive libido. His entire life was a performance, a continuous act of self-theatricalization.”
Henel’s art also captures the pain and isolation he experienced throughout his life.
Psychiatrist Dr. Bogusław Habrat, who has studied Henel’s work and contributed to the exhibition, said that Henel did not suffer from mental illness but rather complex psychological disorders.
“He likely had congenital intellectual deficits that made it difficult for him to respond to his environment,” Habrat explained. “At the same time, his personality was shaped by a series of horrific external circumstances, including physical and psychological violence.”
Today Henel is recognized as a remarkable artist.
“His work is a pure expression of eroticism,” Habrat said. “He did not censor himself in this regard, and that makes his art both fascinating and unsettling.”
The exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Wrocław, will run until February 16.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP