From the asylum to the museum: early exhibitions of Brazilian's collections of madness

Abstract

The spontaneous production of drawings, paintings and objects made by patients in psychiatric hospitals attracted the attention of psychiatrists and artists who started to collect them, originating several collections. Initially these works were considered medical documents; soon, many of them were admired for their aesthetic quality and received the status of work of art. Some of these collections turned into museums. The present text analyzes how this process occurred in Brazil, following the steps of the collection organized by Nise da Silveira which originated the Museum of Images from the Unconscious. It will be seen how a conjunction of factors catalyzed the process of musealization, anticipating similar processes in European collections. Keywords: Collections of madness. Exhibitions. Museology.