Amie Hates You

EUGENE VON BRUENCHENHEIN

Despite his mother dying when he was very young, Bruenchenhein (who was born in 1910) had a fairly normal life working in the family grocery business and amongst other careers worked in a bakery.

However after his death in 1983, a vast archive of artwork was discovered in his home that he had completed in seclusion. There were thousands of drawings and paintings, odd floral ceramic pieces, miniature furniture and towers made from gilded chicken bones, dozens of poems and written works, large cement sculptures, and hundreds of photographs of Marie in exotic costumes and settings.

Marie, along with his close friends; had kept Bruenchenhein’s work secret for decades.

early works were more traditional depictions of flowers and landscapes, among them was found a vast series of apocalyptic finger paintings, begun in 1954 in reaction to the development of the hydrogen bomb. Later works reveal interests in evolution and the origins of life, outer space, and futuristic cities. Throughout his house he had placed messages to himself, some in pencil scribbled directly onto the wall, and some on gilded homemade plaques. One in the basement said, “Create and Be Recognized!” while a plaque in the kitchen testified: “Eugene Von Bruenchenhein—Freelance Artist, Poet and Sculptor, Inovator [sic], Arrow maker and Plant man, Bone artifacts constructor, Photographer and Architect, Philosopher.”

Which is ironic because when he was alive his artwork was kept so secret.

Some words taken from, ’The End is Near! (American Visionary Art Museum exhibition’.

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