This is a selection of art, from artists who happen to be famous and have a mental illness. I’ve selected the works based on my own taste, rather than what is most well-known.
I think you’ll agree that you can be mentally ill and fabulously talented at the same time.
Pablo Picasso
Weeping Woman, 1937
(Schizophrenia)
Caspar David Friedrich
Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, 1810
Destroyed during WWII
(Clinical Depression)
Jackson Pollock
Blue (Moby Dick), c. 1943
(Bipolar disorder)
Adolf Wolfli
Irren-Anstalt Band-Hain, 1910
(Schizophrenia)
Edward Dayes
The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1798
(Bipolar disorder)
Edvard Munch
Evening on Karl Johan, 1892
(Bipolar disorder)
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
La Toilette, 1896
(Clinical Depression)
Claude Monet
Le dejeuner (The Lunch), 1873
(Clinical Depression)
Vincent Van Gogh
Bench in a Wood, 1882
(Bipolar disorder)
Mark Rothko
Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, 1944
(Bipolar disorder)
Claude Monet
Waterlillies, 1907
(Clinical Depression)
Pablo Picasso
Figures on a Beach, 1931
(Schizophrenia)
Dr Shock 29 Jul 2007 @ 8:14 am
Nice paintings, but Pablo Picasso did not suffer from Schizophrenia, to my opinion. Narcissistic personality disorder probably, but having read his biography the diagnoses of schizophrenia seems unlikely to me.
All those women and how he dealt with them, no can’t imagine a patient suffering from schizophrenia doing that.
James Ensor [Belgian Expressionist Painter, 1860-1949] he suffered from Schizophrenia, see:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/archive/arts/26166/wonderfully-mad.thtml
Regards Dr Shock
Art by the Mentally Ill (Part 2: Not so Famous) | Finding Optimism 16 Aug 2007 @ 11:47 pm
[...] couple of weeks ago I posted some art by artists who are famous and have, or had, a mental illness. This is a similar post with artists who aren’t household [...]
mental illness and the arts » change therapy - isabella mori 19 Aug 2007 @ 11:02 pm
[...] at finding optimism, there are two good little articles on famous and not-so-famous painters struggling with mental illness. take picasso, for example, who is said to have suffered from schizophrenia, or monet, who was [...]
Noclegi Karpacz 18 Mar 2008 @ 3:30 am
Very nice pictures!
john johnson 4 Apr 2008 @ 5:43 pm
Yeah i believe the style used for the weeping woman is just so extrodinary.
Ana 8 Jun 2008 @ 7:44 am
This is a very difficult issue.
Diagnosing people who are alive is hard.
Diagnosing people who are dead and were not diagnosed in their lifetime is hard.
Diagnosing artists from the last century with diseases that didn’t exist is dangerous.
Van Gogh, whose work has always been regarded as a product of a his mental condition, has already been diagnosed:
-depression
-schizophrenia
-epilepsy
- maniac-derpessive
and now bipolar.
This is a very dangerous thing to do and psychiatrist love doing this lists of “famous lunatics”.
It’s amazing that all these people have a “good” character.
I’ve already met depressed, bipolar, schizophrenic people who are very evil and has no art skills.
Jung has a good approach on dissociating mental illness with “geniality”.
Katie 21 Aug 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Picasso schizophrenic? No. This man’s life and art are very well documented- Where on earth are you getting your information?
Karleen 15 Sep 2008 @ 1:22 am
Artists with a mental illness have been portrayed differently from the insider art community. If their mental illness is public knowledge the apprectiation of their art is valued on a different set of criteria. Their positions remain firmly marginal with respect to both mainstream and also avant-garde culture (Parr, 2006). Heidegger (1971) posits that a work of art does not stand on its own. Art exists within the recognition of the social or institutional construction of the boundaries of art worlds (Fine, 2003).
It is such a shame that we as a community can not learn to accept creative expression with out trying to label and diagnosed the output. Art interpretation and understanding occurrs through direct, personal experience of encountering of the work of art at an individual level.
Do the experiences of illness influence the artistic expression of the artist with a mental illness in ways that can be identified as different? Can the artwork of a person with a mental illness be considered within the aesthetic framework of the art establishment and thus can the person with a mental illness be considered as artist irrespective of their illness?
These questions have sparked 8 in Australia artists to share their experiences of the artist beyond the boundaries of their illness http://www.artistcitizen.com.
heidi 13 Nov 2008 @ 7:43 pm
Very intriguing artworks. I do beleive that these people did suffer from depression and bipolar disorder. there were no medications back then to help them heal. So wonderous and so sad.
Kyle Reynolds 16 Apr 2009 @ 5:33 pm
Love the site. Just wonder why so many people feel Pablo Picasso was Schizophrenic. I don’t think he was.
RawFilms 13 May 2009 @ 3:22 am
The next great artist with a mental illness. Allen Streets, a paranoid schizophrenic lives off his street paintings in New York City. http://www.mynameisalan.com
sandrar 11 Sep 2009 @ 9:26 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.
Amy Heavner 12 Mar 2010 @ 1:18 am
I highly doubt Picasso suffered from schizophrenia, as this disorder seems to debilitate the social life of one who suffers from the disorder. Picasso was too social to have suffered from this. His social skills were acute as he left a trail of women behind him. Bipolar perhaps or even dependent personality disorder or narcissistic but I don’t see the schizophrenia as an accurate diagnosis.
Paul 15 Mar 2010 @ 1:07 pm
I have just looked at the paintings at http:// http://www.alanstreets.com
This Artist name is Alan Streets and was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia.
He lives and paints in NYC.
In my opinion his paintings are very special and maybe one day would they become masterpieces.
I truly wish I could afford one of Alan Street’s paintings .
Perhaps soon I can buy one…
Karen Mumsey 14 Aug 2010 @ 4:57 am
The idea that artists are mentally ill is like saying that everyone who thinks energetically and not structurally is mentally ill… a typical error of structural people
Neither Picasso nor Pollock were artists, just very good advertisers who convinced people that their selfishness was really ‘artiness’. Pollock stole his action painting style from his wife! Then he ran out of ideas (maybe he shouldn’t have stolen them) and died drunk.
Art is about talking to God. If you’re an artist you talk to God through your work. If you talk to people, you might just be a feral bastard who likes having sex with women. I wish that people would know this, but they don’t, and most of the ‘art’ they’re interested in today is ‘anti-art’ — something that DuChamp labeled his own work.
Jessica S 29 Sep 2010 @ 2:14 am
to Karen mumsy
I agree that saying all artists have a mental illness is wrong. I myself am an artist. Art, however; is not about talking to God. Maybe for certain artists…but being an artist is connecting to your own unique beliefs. If that is Christian influenced or Muslim influence, that is to that unique individual. I am an atheist and I am whole-heartedly devoted to my connection with the universe via knowledge and emotion; which is dedicated to hopes and admiration for the human race as well as discovery of time and space.
So you are making a catagory mistake just as the people who have stated that artists have mental illness. Not all art is about connecting to a deity. For some, it’s different. If you are going to criticize, do not be hypoctritical.
Laylaartcom 3 Oct 2010 @ 8:43 am
Maybe the weeping woman that Picasso had painted had Schizophrenia, not him.
Robert 15 Oct 2010 @ 6:54 am
I watched “My Name Is Alan and I Paint Pictures”, about the mentally ill artist Alan Streets. The film addresses the therapeutic benefits of art for mental illness. Alan Streets is deeply affected with Paranoid Schizophrenia and he is unable to interact with people. His paintings are sold online. http://www.alanstreetsstore.com
Check out some cuts of the documentary on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/rawfilmsonline#p/c/A04151BA10EA7521/3/jKsjQzDv9sc
Anonymous 14 Nov 2010 @ 5:10 am
i think the best example of a living artist who embraces his mental illness is the sculptor Killian Skarr. He’ll be the first to admit he’s completely out of his skull and believe me, it shows…
Shubhadarshini Singh 23 Apr 2011 @ 4:07 am
Now psychopharmacological drugs make them “sane” or sedated… and the creativity slips away…
Shubhadarshini Singh 23 Apr 2011 @ 4:08 am
when you talk to god its a prayer when god talks to you its schizophrenia
Sarah 4 May 2011 @ 5:00 pm
Interesting. Here’s a link to a mentally ill artist group.
http://www.etsy.com/teams/9141/crazyartbycrazies
Mike Crawford 29 Oct 2011 @ 12:55 am
Hi there.
I was diagnosed schizophrenic in 2002 and I’m also an aspie.
Just thought I’d show you some of my work.
John hogan 5 Nov 2011 @ 3:07 am
I have schiziophrenia, I have an arts degree, I was aprofessional illustrator now im a full time painter.
Alan 18 Jan 2012 @ 9:28 am
I can see the point of this sort of thing to show that many famous people – and therefore many people – suffer from mental illnesses. And that just because you have a mental illness doesn’t mean you can’t be a productive, valued and memorable member of society.
However, the inversion that I’ve seen pointed out is a valid one – the idea that artists must be suffering from some sort of mental illness to be that way. I say this not because it’s a bad label, which I suppose it is, but because it reduces the personal toll to one of servitude.
“Well, Van Gogh was unhappy his whole life but look at these wonderful paintings he produced.”
This idea of ups and downs – where we get the up and they get the down – is problematic. If Van Gogh was sad for his whole life, then it wasn’t worth it – no matter what paintings we get to enjoy because of it. More than a few people have expressed the same sentiment to me when I’m feeling down, about it being “good material”, and I’m not going to be Van Gogh in any month of Sundays.
It also creates a dichotomy whether you’re an artist or not, the idea that your life is somehow good because you did good – even if it felt like a living hell. It creates a cycle of self-sacrifice instead of looking for help.
Anyway, I do like this blog post a lot but agree that the message can be taken in two ways – good and bad.