Installation view, 'Ida Applebroog. Mercy Hospital’, Hauser & Wirth London, England, 2017 © Ida Applebroog. Photo: Alex Delfanne
Ida Applebroog, Mercy Hospital reviewed by Studio International
These drawings from the forgotten sketchbooks of the well-known feminist artist Ida Applebroog offer an intimate insight into her struggle with depression during a six-week stay at Mercy Hospital in 1969.
In 1969, Ida Horowitz (b1929), a struggling artist and mother of four, recently moved from Chicago to San Diego, was driving her two young sons to the zoo when suddenly she felt herself unravelling. She was unable to tell red from green, and her children had to guide her through set upon set of traffic lights. Later that day, recognising the danger, she checked herself into the mental health ward of Mercy Hospital.
Ida Applebroog, ‘Mercy Hospital’, 1969 © Ida Applebroog. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Emily Poole
