OVARTACI - Wall Paintings

OVARTACI - Wall Paintings

September 26th, 2002 was the day we chose to celebrate the hanging of the Ovartaci wall painting in the very beautiful entrance to the restored part of the hospital, as it is today the 108th anniversary of Overtaci's birth in Ebeltoft.

In 1961 I had the great privilege of meeting and becoming friends with Ovartaci. I never considered Ovartaci as a patient and never thought of treating him. Ovartaci provided me with great human and artistic experiences and had I not gotten to know him, there would most likely not be a museum here at the hospital and hence no Gallo organization in Århus either.

Originally, the Ovartaci wall paintings were situated in one or more basements under what is today section S4 and S5 in the restored part of the hospital.

In cooperation with conservator Lars Vester Jacobsen we chose to only expose and restore the paintings in the cellar in which they were best preserved.

Ovartaci was hospitalised here for 56 years from 1929 until his death in 1985. From the very beginning he found that the hospital was much too grey and sad with too many closed wards and he was convinced that these conditions were inhibitive for the patients in any form of self-realisation. In the 1940s he offered to decorate the entire hospital in order to better these conditions to some extent. He did in fact pr Ovartaci Wall Paintings

Originally, the Ovartaci wall paintings were situated in one or more basements under what is today section S4 and S5 in the restored part of the hospital.

In cooperation with conservator Lars Vester Jacobsen we chose to only expose and restore the paintings in the cellar in which they were best preserved.

²The Dragon², ²The Dancer², ²The Blue People in North Africa² and ²The Dancers on Their Way to the Dancing Place² were a part of such a decoration with wall paintings on all walls from floor to ceiling in a cellar app. covering 20m2. In the 1950s, in spite of the indisputable high artistic quality of the decoration, it was painted over. Most likely, the decoration was considered to be ²insane² and therefore without artistic value. Today, it is hard to understand why this was done, but the exact same thing happened to Ovartaci's magnificent decoration of the chapel at the former psychiatric rest home in Dalstrup.

In the 1970's, together with carpenter foreman Henriksen, I searched for Ovartaci's wall paintings where Henriksen believed they were situated. However, after a while we gave up the search until the head of the cleaning staff, the mother of the famous Danish actor, Jacob Haugaard, heard that we were looking for the wall paintings in a cellar which was an office for the cleaning staff. She arranged for a group of cleaning assistants to peal the paint off the walls with safety pins. After half an hour they had uncovered a number of small areas on the wall revealing that there was colour beneath the mortar - and so it was found that this was one of the cellars with Ovartaci's wall paintings.

I arranged for two of my employees, Jan Hansen and Kirsten Planck Larsen who were very interested in art, to commence uncovering the wall paintings. Kirsten and another employee at the museum restored the paintings under supervision of conservator, Lars Vester Jacobsen. We chose to only work in the cellars that were the least damaged due to moist and repairs of the walls and in this particular room we also left out the most damaged wall paintings on the outer walls.

Lars Vester Jacobsen was the one who supervised the uncovering of Ovartaci's wall painting in the chapel in Dalstrup. Ovartaci was praised and received a record player for the very beautiful and traditional decoration of the chapel picturing Christ with unfolded arms and angels as they were normally depicted. Meanwhile, Ovartaci found himself visited by Christ a dark fall night specifically asking not to be in the same room as dead insane people. Although Ovartaci was a Buddhist and not a Christian he did respect Christ as a great prophet and one day he broke a window to the chapel, crawled in, and painted over Christ a naked woman. Following long negotiations with the management of the rest home and the vicar, Ovartaci agreed to make a new decoration. The only condition to which he would agree was that the character of Christ could not be a naked woman. In two to three months he made a new magnificent decoration. However, The character of Christ remained a woman that faced away from the r

oom, and the angels were transformed into temporal angels with high-healed shoes, which was not accepted either. The outcome was that there was an attempt to destroy the paintings with acid and afterwards paint it over numerous times. These wall paintings were also uncovered and restored by Kirsten Planck Larsen supervised by Lars Vester Jacobsen.

When the uncovering of the wall paintings in the cellar at the hospital was coming to an end, Ovartaci came to view the work. He studied the wall paintings very thoroughly and when I asked him if he was happy that we had uncovered the paintings, he answered that it was bound to happen. I think he meant that we were bound to come to our senses and uncover the paintings that had meant so much to him and therefore should be appreciated by us.

When I asked him if the "The Dancer" was an Egyptian belly dancer, he was amused and said that the model was rather a nurse, but that she was the woman all men dream about. We actually believe that the model was Josefine Baker who visited Copenhagen in the 1930's and was much discussed in the press.

Moreover, "The Dancer" is displayed as a sculpture at the art museum and it is said that just as Ovartaci sold his smoking phantoms he also sold wooden dancing figures.

About the painting with the Indian-like tents and the blue heart, Overtaci said that the blue heart probably symbolized "The Blue People". He has told me that at one time he stayed with "The Blue People" in North Africa in one of his many former lives.

Lars Vester Jacobsen is the one who has pulled the paintings off the walls and restored them splendidly and we are very thankful for that.

On one of the walls in the cellars, the bottom half of the paintings was completely destroyed by repairs of the wall.

In spite of the fact that Ovartaci stayed at The Psychiatric Hospital In Risskov for 56 years, he created an enviable spiritual freedom, a freedom he accomplished through his battle against the institution, the system, the many restrictive conditions at the hospital and an amazing involvement in his work with his art and himself. The entire process was a matter of self-treatment which led to more personal freedom and a better quality of life than is the case for many mentally well people.

Ovartaci did not want any kind of treatment, medical or other. During a very short period in the 1950's he was given psychopharmacological drugs in his food. However, the staff in the ward quickly discontinued this treatment, particularly because his artistic activity and quality deteriorated and mentally, he became more ill.

When recently employed doctors suggested that Ovartaci be given psychopharmacological drug treatment, the nurses always convinced the doctors that it was probably not a good idea since he definitely felt better without the drugs and did not want any kind of treatment.

Ovartaci treated himself from dusk till dawn through his artistic activities, which to him was also particularly meaningful work.

Today, there is a lot of debate and writing about Recovery (recovering from a mental illness). Ovartaci showed two roads to Recovery, through creative activities and meaningful work - which, in the case of Ovartaci, was working with his art from morning to night.

I sincerely hope that the hospital, patients, patient relations, other guests and employees will appreciate the Ovartaci decoration in this very beautiful room. When Ovartaci offered to decorate the whole hospital he was rejected. I hope that in the existence he is in now, he will appreciate that, in spite of all the trouble, he did actually manage to decorate the main entrance to one half of the hospital and maybe, on this basis, he will forgive that his magnificent wall paintings in the cellars as well as in Dalstrup were painted over.

There is no doubt whatsoever, that the artistic quality of the decoration meets the standards of the art which is exhibited in the finest museums around the world.

Johannes Nielsen