American (born Prussia), 1830-1923

Charles AA Dellschau produced a body of work from the turn of the past century until his death while he was virtually sealed in an attic in Houston Texas. His work, which took the form of diary pages, was in large part an attempt to record the activities of the Sonora Aero Club, of which he was a member, which was a group of flight enthusiasts who met in the Sonora desert in the mid 1800's. Their mission was to design the very first navigatable aircrafts.

Dellschau work also shows influence of circus banner painting, which was also popularized in the south during the turn of the century. His work is testimony to the sense of optimism that new technologies have when they impact so greatly upon our lives and change the way we see the world we live in. Flight, up until that time, had been a metaphor for man's pathos - or his inability to accomplish what he was not meant to. Dellschau's work is also remarkable in that it uses the medium of watercolor brilliantly, often using water as the medium with a subtle tint of color. Dellschau's work is one of the earliest coherent body of work known by an American visionary artist. Dellschau's first one person exhibition was mounted some 75 years after his death, and his work is in numerous private collection as well as museums.

Menill Foundation Houston Texas 1996

"Wind In My Hair" American Visionary Museum 1996

"Aeronautical Notebooks" Ricco Maresca Gallery 1998

"Plots and Inventions" 2000 Ramapo College New Jersey

"Visonary Dreamers" University of Syracuse New York 2002

"The Secret Life of Charles Dellschau" 2004 San Antonio Museum, Menilo Museum

Eye of the World: Miniature and Microcosm in the Art of the Self Taught Addison Gallery of American Art, PA 2002

"American Self Taught from the High Museum", High Museum Annex 2005

Dopes, Dupes, and Demagogues: Viewed by Outsiders Louise Ross Gallery 2004

"Create and Be Recgonized: Photography on the Edge". Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) 2005

"INNER WORLDS OUTSIDE" AT THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY LONDON 2006

Charles Dellschau and Leonardo DaVinci

"FLIGHTS OF IMAGINATION" WITTE MUSEUM, TEXAS 2008