Hall, Michael

Germany, 1962

Michael Hall attended a special school for the mentally handicapped until 1987. He was then sent to a workshop for the disabled, where his artistic talent was spotted in an arts-and-crafts work group. It was in this studio that he began drawing and sketching, first with colored Indian ink and later with crayons. Until 1999 he lived in a small neighbouring village with his aunt; he now lives in a residential home next to the studio. He refers to himself as a “Spaßvogel” (literally “joker”) and loves to incorporate little jokes into his pictures. In his spare time he enjoys listening to old German popular songs, whose lyrics he often knows by heart. Besides drawing, he sporadically produces plastic works of art, which can be up to two meters high.