BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)
Latest editorial
Painting and drawing scenes from an imagined life
DANIELA MUELLER shares her fascination with Else Blankenhorn’s Allegory with Imperial Couple painted during her stay at a mental hospital while diagnosed with schizophrenia
Allegory with Imperial Couple, before 1920
[Prinzhorn Collection Heidelberg]
HELEN VASSALLO recommends a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion
New releases from Steve Swallow, Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts, and Ady Johnson
When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
New releases from Simone White, Brass Funkeys, and Souad Massi
SUE TURNER is compelled by a history that shows how far a country can turn in on itself to collude with abuses of power
RON JACOBS is persuaded by the parallel drawn between Charles Manson and Donald Trump
ELSE BLANKENHORN (1873–1920) painted Allegory with Imperial Couple during her stay at a mental hospital. The daughter from a wealthy family in Karlsruhe in southern Germany, Blankenhorn suffered from nervous breakdowns at the age of 26. This led to her first admission for treatment at the private Bellevue Sanatorium in Switzerland in 1899, where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Blankenhorn had received a musical education in her childhood, but it was only in the sanatorium in 1908 that she started to paint and draw.
Similar stories
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard
Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade, posits DAN O’BRIEN
BLANE SAVAGE recommends the display of nine previously unseen works by the Glaswegian artist, novelist and playwright