Peter Moog (1871–1930) was an

outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates e ...

ist with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, and one of the "schizophrenic masters" profiled by

Hans Prinzhorn Hans Prinzhorn (6 June 1886 – 14 June 1933) was a German psychiatrist and art historian. Born in Hemer, Westphalia, he studied art history and philosophy at the University of Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1908. He then went to England to ...

in his field-defining work ''

Artistry of the Mentally Ill ''Artistry of the Mentally Ill: a contribution to the psychology and psychopathology of configuration'' (german: Bildnerei der Geisteskranken: ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und Psychopathologie der Gestaltung) is a 1922 book by psychiatrist Hans Pr ...

''. Moog became a waiter and later a tavern owner, getting married in 1900 to a woman with whom he had three children. Throughout his life, he had been prone to a "loose life style, alcoholism, and sexual excess" (Prinzhorn 1972, p. 144) and had

gonorrhea Gonorrhea, colloquially known as the clap, is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacterium '' Neisseria gonorrhoeae''. Infection may involve the genitals, mouth, or rectum. Infected men may experience pain or burning with ...

. He had his first schizophrenic episode in 1908, shortly after his wife's death in 1907. His episode convinced him to become a poet, and he drifted from town to town attempting to give lectures and start his own printing press. Six weeks afterward, his relatives finally committed him to an asylum. In the asylum he wrote lewd poetry, starting to paint in 1912. In a surprising contrast to his verses, all of his paintings were of saints and religious images. The style of his paintings is reminiscent of a stained glass window. Figures are composed of many narrow strips, each decorated with its own ornamental pattern and each of a different color. Moog displays the common outsider ''horror vacui'', filling every space with decoration. He painted saints in order to atone for his earlier sins, and renounced his earlier lifestyle, equating sexuality with sin and renouncing tobacco and alcohol during his years in the asylum.

Resources

* Prinzhorn, Hans. ''Artistry of the mentally ill: a contribution to the psychology and psychopathology of configuration''. Trans. Eric von Brockdorff. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1972. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Moog, Peter 1871 births 1930 deaths Drinking establishment owners Outsider artists People with schizophrenia 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters