Schizophrenia, Aging and Art
by Jon Henshaw
Cornell University has an intriguing section of their website that looks at schizophrenia, aging and art. The site captures the art of William Kurelek during his early onset of schizophrenia.
It also highlights Louis Wain, who experienced late onset of schizophrenia. One of the key features of Louis’ experience with schizophrenia involved the abstraction of his “cat” paintings. Over time, his depiction of cats became abstract — almost fractal — until they barely resembled cats at all.
More art examples, references, and information on schizophrenia and art can be found at their Schizophrenia, Aging and Art website.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am and is filed under Arts and Crafts, Lifestyles, Mental Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 10th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
That’s just fascinating.. I reminds me of a post-war artist — what’s his name now? stupid brain! Oh, I’ll remember it next week — anyway, his paintings of human figures evolved over time as his alcoholism took hold, until all the lanscapes were populated with elongated and simplified human forms, almost tubular in trunk and limbs. Like a bottle. But that — and this — is just a vivid example of what goes on everytime an artist presents his/her vision, isn’t it? Only, exaggerated by illness or chemical alterations to the brain & perceptions. Thanks so much for sharing this — it all makes a person think!