wölfli’s work after his death

1930-1945
After his death, not much is heard about Wölfli’s work.
In 1945 the French artist Jean Dubuffet discovers it during a journey undertaken through Switzerland. Following this, the work becomes one of the main cornerstones of his idea of an Art Brut and is shown at various locations in Paris as part of the collection of the “Compagnie de l’Art Brut”.

1950
Drawings by Wölfli are shown at the Exposition internationale d'art psychopathologique in Paris that comprises 2,000 works from 45 collections and is visited by 10,000 viewers.

1963
Harald Szeemann shows works by Wölfli on the occasion of the exhibition Art of the Mentally Ill shown at the Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.

1967
Art Brut, a large exhibition of Dubuffet’s collection, takes place at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

1972
Szeemann shows Wölfli’s work for the first time in the context of international art at documenta 5 in Kassel.
In London, Roger Cardinal’s book Outsider Art introduces Art Brut to the English-speaking public.

1975
Establishment of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts Bern, under the direction of Elka Spoerri.
Opening of the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne (Jean Dubuffet’s collection).

1976-1980
Large travelling exhibition of Adolf Wölfli’s oeuvre through Europe and the USA.

1985
The first part of Adolf Wölfli’s writings From the Cradle to the Grave is published and Wölfli is discovered as a writer and a poet.

1991
Geographic Book Nr. 11, an excerpt from the second part of Wölfli’s writings, is published

1996
Art historian Daniel Baumann becomes the new director of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation.

2003
The American Folk Art Museum in New York presents the exhibition The Saint Adolf Giant Creation: The Art of Adolf Wölfli and encounters a great success.

2011
Museum LaM at Villeneuve d’Ascq (France) organizes the exhibition Adolf Wölfli Univers and presents new insights into Wölfli’s work.

The work of Adolf Wölfli is reprezented in the following collections, among others:

Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Adolf Wölfli Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts Bern, Switzerland
American Folk Art Museum, New York, USA
Collection abcd, Montreuil/Paris, France
Collection de l'art brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
LaM, Musée d´art brut moderne, d´art contemporaine et d´art brut, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Museum Charlotte Zander Schloss Bönnigheim, Germany
Museum of Everything, London, Great Britain