Wenzel, Roy
Background: autistic from childhood; raised by his father, living with his brother and sister-in-law.
Education: none.
Profession/occupation: none.
Art form/medium: drawing.
Start artwork: at the age of 11.
Relevant info: in childhood frequent hospitalization because of severe suffering from eczema; depicts hospital scenes; self-portraits crying; has obsessions about trains, cars, architecture and high-heeled fair women.
(Solo-) exhibitions: 2000, Loughborough University; University College Northampton; Museum De Stadshof Zwolle 2001; Backyard Genius, Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke 2009.
Monograph: Berkum, Ans van, Colin Rhodes, David Parker; Roy Wenzel. Works On Paper, Zwolle (Museum De Stadshof) 2000.
References: Verstraete, Phia; Roy Wenzel; een complex lijnenspel, in: Out of Art, jg 3 nr 4, 2008.
Wenzel’s parents came from Indonesia to Holland where he was born in 1959. The memory of periods of hospitalisation during childhood has remained strong, revealed in the recurrent presence in pictures. In many of them he draws a small self-portrait figure with arms raised behind his head, hair standing on end, and face screwed into a silent scream. He first discovered the urge to draw at the age of eleven and quickly began spontaneously to draw on anything he could find.
Roy Wenzel1959 Heerlen, The Netherlands -
