Peter RiekDaß.Hab.Ich.Auch.Schon.Einmal.Gezeichnet.

This volume documents the engagement of the draughtsman Peter Riek with the psychiatric patient Barbara Suckfüll, born in 1857. The simple peasant woman bore seven children and led a normal life until she began to perceive “telephone voices” – the beginning of a hospital stay lasting many years. Suckfüll refused to wear the institutional clothing, never wanted to leave her cell and made no contact with other patients, yet in her drawings she developed a breathtaking world of her own. Only a few sheets of these have survived in the Sammlung Prinzhorn in Heidelberg, and they formed the starting point for Peter Riek’s artistic preoccupation with Barbara Suckfüll, which lasted more than two years. The result is over 300 drawings and room installations in Reutlingen, Berlin, Ellwangen and Heidelberg. Peter Riek, born in 1960, works exclusively with drawing. His abstract, poetic works and spaces convey a peculiarly disquieting stillness and occupy an important position in contemporary drawing.

Exhibition:
Sammlung Prinzhorn Heidelberg, 19/3 – 3/5/2009