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    • Get to know 4 artists who suffered from mental illness (and how it affected their art)

    Get to know 4 artists who suffered from mental illness (and how it affected their art)

    • Posted by Citaliarestauro Blogue
    • Categories Art, History of Art
    • Date 10/10/2020
    • Comments 0 comment
    artists who suffered from mental illness artistas que sufrieron enfermedades mentales

    On World Mental Health Day, we will meet 4 artists who suffered from mental illness and see their reflection in their works.

    The subject of mental illness and art has often been discussed, especially in recent years. It is undeniable that there is a relationship, especially if we think of art as an elementary form of human communication.

    From this perspective, artistic production would not only be a response to disease but a form of output, a release valve.


    Author - Rute Ferreira

    artists who suffered from mental illness

    30.03.1853_Nasce Vincent Van Gogh
    30.03.1853  Vincent Van Gogh

    The painter Vincent van Gogh is well-known for his artwork and for a particular aspect of his personal life: the post-impressionist spent some time in a psychiatric clinic. There, he produced works of art such as Starry Night and many of his famous self-portraits.

    Besides suffering from anxiety and depression, the artist also faced a crisis of epilepsy. Some experts believe that the painter also suffered from a xanthophyll overdose – and this factor affected his art, since Van Gogh was able to see more yellowish colors, he intensified yellows in his paintings.

    In addition to Van Gogh, many other artists had similar problems. Today we’ll introduce four artists who suffered from mental illness – and how it affected their art.

     

    artists who suffered from mental illness | Louis Wain

    Louis Wain was an English illustrator born in 1860 who became well known for his illustrations of anthropomorphic cats.

    Louis Wain, The Bachelor Party, dates unknown, private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
    Louis Wain, The Bachelor Party, dates unknown, private collection. Wikimedia Commons.

    The big-eyed cats, who are usually in social situations, such as games or dating, were not initially created on a commission. Although Wain was already known by the public, he began to draw cats to amuse his wife.

    Canto de Natal, Louis Wain, aguarela e desenho
    Carol Singing, Louis Wain, watercolor

    Unfortunately, shortly after he married, Wain lost his wife to cancer. And her death was the trigger for a deep depression in the artist’s life.

    At age 57, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a disorder that affects not only a person’s way of thinking, but also their behavior. Wain began to act aggressively, and so spent the last 15 years of his life in psychiatric institutions.

    It was not only his personality that was affected: Wain’s works of art also began to have a style less and less similar to his initial artworks. His cats, previously smiling and cuddly, began to show different traits, they became more geometric and more colorful. Most of these psychedelic kittens were born when Wain was hospitalized in Napsbury Hospital, where the artist eventually died.

    Louis Wain, Kaleidoscope cat, c.1930, private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
    Louis Wain, Kaleidoscope cat, c.1930, coleção privada. Wikimedia Commons.

    artists who suffered from mental illness | Edvard Munch

    “I can not get rid of my illnesses, for there is a lot in my art that exists only because of them”.

    Wrote the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, famous for the painting The Scream, and for being one of the main artists of the expressionist movement.

    Munch’s family background already predisposed him to possible mental health problems. His mother and one of his sisters died of tuberculosis when he was very young. His father suffered from depression and his other sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Munch did not go unscathed. He had a mental breakdown in 1908, which was aggravated by alcoholism, and he was admitted to a mental health clinic in Denmark.

    In addition to the known mental problems, the painter still faced other issues: in 1937, his works were confiscated by Hitler’s government, and labeled by the dictator “degenerate art“.

    Munch wrote that “sickness, madness, and death were the black angels that guarded my crib,” and he even came to be diagnosed with neurasthenia, a clinical condition associated with hysteria and hypochondria. His work is characterized by figures whose sense of despair and anguish are evident. The strokes and colors that Munch uses in his compositions often demonstrate his own state of mind.

    Edvard Munch, o Grito Google Art Project
    Edvard Munch, The Scream, Google Art Project

    artists who suffered from mental illness | Francisco de Goya

    The third artist on our list is the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. At 46 years old, Goya was confined to bed, had lost hearing, and was very sick with something that was not diagnosed at the time. His deafness had several explanations, such as syphilis or lead poisoning. However, the artist also showed signs of mental disorders which affected his work.

    More current speculation suggests that Goya suffered from Susac Syndrome, a disease that, in addition to causing hearing loss and vision, also causes brain and balance problems.

    Attacks of hallucination and delirium were also frequent during the most critical period of the painter’s illness. External factors such as the Napoleonic Wars deeply marked the painter, too. In his works, he portrayed the gravity of human melancholy, with paintings depicting human suffering becoming more and more common.

    Francisco de Goya, Witches in the Air, 1797, Museu Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Espanha.
    Francisco de Goya, Witches in the Air, 1797, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Espanha.

    artists who suffered from mental illness | Yannoulis Chalepas

    The Greek Yannoulis Chalepas is a different case. Not only is he the only sculptor on our list, but the mental illness he had had no direct effect on his style. Nevertheless, he spent several decades without producing anything or destroying his works as soon as he created them.

    Chalepas began his artistic career relatively quietly and even opened an atelier in Athens after studying in Munich. However, around 1878, he began to show the first symptoms of mental illness. Ten years later, he was diagnosed with dementia, being only 36 years old.

    Chalepas’ mother believed that art was really responsible for his son’s mental state, so she tried to keep him away from sculpting. Only after her death in 1916 did he actually return to work. Researchers agree that in this period he began to create sculptures with more freedom and was not so attached to neoclassical ideals.

    artistas que sofreram de doença mental Chalepas
    Yannoulis Chalepas, Sleeping Female Figure, 1878, National Glyptotheque, Hellenic Army Park, Goudi, Greece.

    Rute Ferreira 07 19About Rute Ferreira

    I am an art teacher with a background in theater, art history and museology. I’m also specialized in Distance Education and I work in basic education. I write regularly on the Citaliarestauro.com blog and the Dailyartmagazine.com. I firmly believe that the history of art is the true history of humanity.


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    Citaliarestauro Blogue
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