Right or wrong, to be different is to be distinguished. So wrote the American artist Henry Darger (1892-1973), who was different and distinguished indeed. An exhibition of 14 of his large, double-sided watercolor landscapes that opened yesterday at Ricco Maresca Gallery sheds light on the consummate artistry and the strange workings of this mysterious artist who was completely unknown during his lifetime.

Henry Darger was a self-taught artist who lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago where he spent much of his time—after working at his day job as a janitor and going to church—writing an epic adventure, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. In addition to writing this 30,000-page text, he created nearly 300 large-scale watercolor paintings illustrating the fantastical tale as well as keeping a 10-year weather journal that informs his paintings of fierce storms and other natural occurances.

The book is said to be an unnerving combination of The Pilgrim’s Progress, Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and Nancy Drew. The hurly-burly plot centers on a family of seven crusading sisters called the Vivian Girls whose mission is to liberate a cohort of children held captive by the Glandelinians, a blood-lusting band of adult pedophilic males. Through a series of horrendous battles with a tragic loss of life, the Vivians prevail.

Side A: They are captured by Glandelinian soldier/After Osmondson they are rescued/At Rassing Hogan are attacked by a tiger which they kill, c. 1940-50. Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York. Copyright Kiyoko Lerner. 

The paintings depict panoramic landscapes populated by often naked, prepubescent, sexually ambiguous children (the girls are Shirley Temple look-alikes, but some are hermaphrodites) and by soldiers who menace, pursue, abuse and kill them. The paintings envision a cosmic, erotically charged struggle between good and evil, innocence and experience, freedom and captivity.

The landscape paintings currently on view represent the breadth and scope of Darger’s artistry. While he considered himself lacking as a draftsman—to the point that he made tracings of coloring book and magazine figures to use in his art—he was an amazing designer. He paid particular attention to visual space and perspective in his complex landscapes, making drugstore photoprints of his clippings to size his figures relative to their placement within the picture plane. Some of his landscapes evoke images of war torn battlefields from the Civil War, which the artist reputedly studied.

Side B: 41 At Jennie Richee are lost in the wilderness in the storms darkness, c. 1940-50. Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York. Copyright Kiyoko Lerner. 

In violent battles against the evil Glandelinian Army, the seven innocent Vivian Girls brave tornadoes and blazing forests, are strangled by clouds in the sky, and even “disappear through the earth” in miraculous escapes. Henry Darger’s extraordinary talent as a colorist, his sensitivity to line, and rhythmic compositions combine to create a formal beauty that renders even brutal imagery, sublime.

Side B: 77 At Jennie Richee Again persued by fury of storm, undated (c.1940-50). Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York. Copyright Kiyoko Lerner.

Henry Darger | Landscapes continues at Ricco Maresca Gallery through February 2, 2012. 329 West 20th Street, NY, NY.