Else Blankenhorn

Empress Else and her “love currency”

Else Blankenhorn's "love currency", which she designed on the imaginary commission of her "husband in spirit", Kaiser Wilhelm II.(Bild: Sammlung Prinzhorn, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg)

The Museum Gugging honors Else Blankenhorn with a retrospective - a journey of discovery through the colorful world of thoughts of a fascinating woman. 

It all began with a disappointed love affair. When a friend married the man she desired, Else Blankenhorn (1873 to 1920) was plunged into a deep psychological crisis. The musical young woman from a good family lost her singing voice - and was admitted to the luxurious Swiss private sanatorium Bellevue.

"The patients came from all over Europe, every wish was read from their lips here. Blankenhorn also had two rooms with his own furniture and a harmonium," says Ingrid von Beyme, deputy director of the Prinzhorn Collection, who curated the retrospective. "Above all, however, creativity was also promoted here as a healing method."

Else began drawing and painting in 1908 and found her own pictorial language with expressive power, strong color contrasts and very "personal symbols in which every little detail has a meaning," says Beyme. Her paintings were so remarkable that the psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn wanted to include her as the only woman in his book "Bildnerei der Geisteskranken" in 1922. "But he had to cut back, and so she was deleted. Her work was too complex. Instead, he wanted to dedicate a monograph to her, but unfortunately that didn't happen," explains Beyme.

Around 100 years later, the colorful world of ideas and the life of this extraordinary artist is now being put in the spotlight at Museum Gugging. On display are 135 objects, including paintings, drawings as well as notebooks and drawing books with poems and compositions.

A special feature of the exhibition is her self-painted banknotes, the design of which was commissioned by her imaginary "husband in spirit", none other than Kaiser Wilhelm II. In "faithful marital love", Empress Else produced her "love currency", which was intended to finance the resurrection of deceased lovers.

"Else Blankenhorn! The life of thought is real" can be seen at Museum Gugging until August 18.