Help me find this image!

July 1, 2007 7:31 AM

Long ago, when the internets were new, I came upon a strange and exceedingly captivating image. I've searched and searched for it since, to no avail. Somebody else out there has to have seen this, please point me in the right direction.

The image I'm looking for was part of an exhibition of art done by mental patients, and was somewhere in South America. The exhibit was ended shortly thereafter, and the webpage apparently went away along with it. The particular image that I'm searching for depicted a small lizard pinned down to the floor by a knife through it's tail, being tormented by a bunch of crows. I can't remember exactly, but the "floor" may have been a chessboard. I'm sure the patient who painted it was seeing himself as the lizard in the picture... If you have seen this image, please let me know where to find it. Thanks.

posted by ackptui to media & arts (6 comments total)

Ouch! You ask a hard question. I'm intrigued and I doubt I have much to offer despite 20mins of fruitless searching I'm afraid. My meagre suggestion would be to send a nice email to RawVision and The American Visionary Museum seeing if they have any ideas.
posted by peacay at 8:46 AM on July 1, 2007

I would love to see this. I spent a while searching google images, using various combinations of 'newt salamander lizard crows blackbirds bird knife tail drawing painting art illustration'....nothing. If you could remember anything else, like what country, what institution...anything? Even part of the url would help.
posted by iconomy at 8:55 AM on July 1, 2007

That sounds like a portion of The Maze by William Kurelek. I can't find any good scans of the section you seem to be talking about, so I scanned it myself (it's in the old Time/Life Science Library book The Mind) and put it up at my site.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 9:19 AM on July 1, 2007 [6 favorites]

That's it! Muchas gracias.
posted by ackptui at 11:02 AM on July 1, 2007

The original may be viewed here. A particulary attractive one room museum tucked away in SE London. It also contains a heartening sequel to The Maze painted after Kurelek's cure at the hospital, some interesting Lois Wain psychedelic cats and Raving and Melancholy Madness.
posted by Dr.Pill at 2:15 PM on July 1, 2007

Thanks, L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg. This was a blast from the past for me: we had that Time/Life book when I was a kid and I always liked this picture.
posted by sfkiddo at 3:43 PM on July 1, 2007