Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Henry Darger vs. Adolf Hitler


Today on Godwin's Law Revue we compare this landscape painting of Adolf Hitler's
to this portion of Henry Darger's The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. 

I'd like to start the discussion today by stating that these guys were outsiders in very different ways.
Henry Darger was entirely unnoticed during his lifetime, whereas Hitler was very successful during his life, but history has been very kind to Henry Darger, as opposed to Hitler.
They both have very obsessive tendencies, so if Hitler used his dedication and singlemindedness to make one huge book, he'd probably have succeeded at his original goal of becoming a famous artist, and, inarguably, the world would be a better place, though, come on, Hitler's paintings so far really haven't been that great, so I don't know if I'd want him to have made more.
Though if he'd spent as much time working on them as Henry Darger he might've gotten good.

This is a very nice Hitler painting, actually. The landscape is well-done, the colors are bright and interesting, and the light balance is detailed.
But compared to Henry Darger's detail, Hitler sucks ass.
Darger got so many fascinating weird things in this picture, though I can't say the colors are as bright or exciting as in Hitler's. Darger's content and story can't be contested.
Hitler's is pretty realistic, lightwise, whereas Darger has no light variation or even an obvious light source.
In some ways, what we're doing today is bizarre, because Darger is so fantastical, and Hitler is so tied to reality.
I gotta give Darger a ton of credit for his whole work, though this piece specifically isn't much better than Hitler's. They both get 3 mustaches


















Our first tie! Sorry, guys, nothing personal!

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