TY - JOUR

T1 - Compulsive Collectors

T2 - Welcome Inside into the Collections of Andrzej Wajda and Ludwig Zimmerer

AU - Krakus, Anna Helena Alexandra

PY - 2021/3

Y1 - 2021/3

N2 - Oscar-winning film director Andrzej Wajda (1929–2016) was an avid collector of all information relating to himself and his film-making. In 1978 he made a documentary film about a fellow collector, Ludwig Zimmerer (1924–1987), who accumulated thousands of paintings and objects of Polish folk art. This article tells the stories of these two men and their collections. I suggest that an investigation into the lives and times of Wajda and Zimmerer can shed new light on the psychological processes that inform collecting. Rather than dismissing the compulsion to collect as a product of neurosis, as some previous interpretations have done, I argue here that we should read it as a productive and compensatory method for curing addictions.

AB - Oscar-winning film director Andrzej Wajda (1929–2016) was an avid collector of all information relating to himself and his film-making. In 1978 he made a documentary film about a fellow collector, Ludwig Zimmerer (1924–1987), who accumulated thousands of paintings and objects of Polish folk art. This article tells the stories of these two men and their collections. I suggest that an investigation into the lives and times of Wajda and Zimmerer can shed new light on the psychological processes that inform collecting. Rather than dismissing the compulsion to collect as a product of neurosis, as some previous interpretations have done, I argue here that we should read it as a productive and compensatory method for curing addictions.

U2 - 10.1093/jhc/fhaa005

DO - 10.1093/jhc/fhaa005

M3 - Journal article

VL - 33

SP - 129

EP - 140

JO - Journal of the History of Collections

JF - Journal of the History of Collections

SN - 0954-6650

IS - 1

ER -