As one term ends, another begins and there is so little time to reflect! So I will dive right in and discuss what I have been looking at over the 'break'. I was searching Carl Laszlo, one of my favourite art collectors and artists. Laszlo discovered and promoted amazing, unusual and daring artists and was the founder of Panderma a publication celebrating neo dada and outsider art. I found a book from a Panderma edition called 'Mondgeistfahrt' (Moon Ghost Trip) by Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern. I now have it sitting right by me on my desk, a strange beautiful thing by a truly eccentric man!.

Sonnenstern (which means Sun+Star) 'lived a peripatetic life [this means he travelled around a lot] marked in large part by ineptitude, indecency and insanity. He was a dairy farmer, a circus performer, a cigar seller, a horse thief, a blackmailer, a cult leader, a penal camp prisoner and a habitual asylum internee. Yet it was only after World War II, when Schröder-Sonnenstern was in his 50s and living amidst the hardships and deprivations of a splintered Germany, that he finally sank to his lowest level and became an artist.' (Pendle, 2025) I thought this was a great way to describe the man, a man who was often considered to be mad, but not all thought so; 'Kort [Pamela Kort [Writer of Art Books and Essays] 'Kort asserts that he was not truly mentally ill in his later years, but simply exaggerated his mental problems in order to get his work noticed by other artists.' (Karlins, 2024). Whether he was mad or not is is amazing he evaded the Nazis as he was very much an eccentric outsider. Sonnenstern himself, 'always denied he was mad. Instead he explained that he had learned his style from an insane painter he had met while in an asylum.' (Pendle, 2025)
Sonnerstern's (1892-1982) works are so very interesting, so unusual and great examples of Outsider Art. The image above of a strange bull/cow with a distorted humanesque face, with tears of what could be blood and a look of anger/pain could be a reflection on the destruction of war, the aftermath of the strange and devasted world Sonnenstern lived in in Berlin. He sold firewood after the war that he scavenged to survive. The strange, massively-breasted woman, dragging it by its tail across a desert landscape, whose face and neck seem to have snakes living in it, goes beyond any explanation. In the book this image is accompanied by a series of small photographs of Sonnerstern with his partner first arguing and then kissing. The text states, 'I have been isolated since childhood; nobody wants to play with me' (Schroder-Sonnenstern, 1974:30). The surrealists loved the work of Sonnerstern and feted him, as they themselves were own to considered be somewhat psychotic and they like him did not fit into the 'normal' world.
Sonnerstern's works contained motifs and repeated symbols, and as time went on, many related to the moon and had moon in the title. Karlins states,
'His drawings are loaded with unsettling sexual, religious and scatological imagery, yet their plush colors and beautiful palette are impressively seductive.' (Karlins, 2024) Many of his works are made with coloured pencils and there is a naive quality underlying quite complex symbology. The image above with the snake essentially eatings its tail with the woman's breasts being bitten does remind the viewer of the Tarot Card, The World, where everything ends and begins again. The woman here, again is strangely distorted with breasts for a chin and strange ducklike feet. In the book for this image, the text states; '
I simply can't put enough round shapes into my pictures - no sharp corners, for they would represent life itself. All round forms are tokens of Perception.', (Schroder-Sonnenstern, 1974:20).
I am thoroughly enjoying pouring over the works of Schöder-Sonnenstern, it fills me with joy to know that artists like him existed and must still exist out there. Long live this kind of eccentric beauty.
References
Karlins, N.F. (2024). Outsider Artist Friedrich Schr�der-Sonnenstern at Michael Werner Gallery - artnet Magazine. [online] Artnet.com. Available at: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/karlins/schroeder-sonnenstern-michael-werner4-14-11.asp [Accessed 29 Mar. 2025].
Michaelwerner.com. (2020). FRIEDRICH SCHRÖDER-SONNENSTERN - From Barefoot Prophet to Avant-Garde Artist - Exhibitions - Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, Beverly Hills, Athens. [online] Available at: https://www.michaelwerner.com/exhibitions/friedrich-schroder-sonnenstern [Accessed 29 Mar. 2025].
Pendle, G. (2025). Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern. [online] Frieze.com. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/friedrich-schr%C3%B6der-sonnenstern [Accessed 29 Mar. 2025].
Schroder-Sonnenstern, F. (1974). Mongeistfahrt. First ed. Munchen, Germany: Verlag F.Bruckmann KG.
Swislow, B. (2012). Book Review: Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern - Interesting Ideas. [online] Interestingideas.com. Available at: https://www.interestingideas.com/book-review-friedrich-schroder-sonnenstern/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2025].