Impressive fine art on psychiatry, obviously someone who knows it from the inside and out.
I am a biologist and PhD. In addition I studied at the Academy of fine Art, Academy Minerva, in Groningen, the Netherlands. Extremes in behavioural and emotional expressions have always had my interest. I observed psychiatric patients and did research on their behaviour. Now, this fascination is a source of inspiration for my fine art.
Tales of a Borderline is an exhibition of artwork by artists with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This disorder affects a persons emotions, causing emotional instability. For further information on BPD, see the ‘What is BPD?’ page.
A few examples of their artwork. The four artists now have an exhibition in the beautiful Renaissance Castle of Hartheim situated close to Upper Austria’s capital city Linz. This castle has a long and troubled history. It was there that Hitler carried out large parts of his National Socialist Euthanasia project on people suffering from mental diseases.
A new artistic programm called “KunstFormenHartheim” started in 2003. The main aim was to present outsider art produced at Hartheim in two newly refurbished gallery rooms in the neighbouring castle. Creativity was chosen as a medium to counteract the horrors of the past by a transition from pain into something new and different. The KulturFormenHartheim thus follows a twofold purpose: the presentation of high-quality outsider art (one of the artists from Hartheim, Heliodor Doblinger, won the EUWARD in 2002) while remembering the past. A new reality is created that stands at a distance to the historical reality but does not lose sight of it.
Tamar Whyte one of the artists has her own website with galleries and a lot of more information also on borderline personality disorder.
Related post on this blog: Art and Depression
According to this short questionnaire on Blogthings.com: What kind of Art are You I am Graffiti.
You are a very expressive person. You couldn’t keep your opinions to yourself, even if you tried.
You have a unique take on life. You question authority figures and the status quo.You believe that art should be everywhere and that everyone is an artist.
The best art is the stuff you run across in everyday life… not in a museum.
Do I recognize myself in this? Absolutely not. But it was fun thanks to Dr Deb, she is a painting
A post on Mind Hacks again pointed me to this website of the Wellcome Collection museum with Art and Mental Illness. The museum has two fantastic free exhibitions on the art and history of mental illness: Madness and Modernity:
This multidisciplinary exhibition presents the range of ways madness and art interacted in Vienna, from designs for utopian psychiatric spaces to the drawings of patients confined in them. It explores the influence of psychiatry on early modernism and encourages us to reflect on how we deal with mental illness 100 years on.
The other exhibition is: Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings: Mental illness and me, 1997-2008:
Bobby Baker is one of the most widely acclaimed and popular performance artists working today. She began her diary drawings in 1997 when she became a patient at a day centre. Originally private, they gradually became a way for her to communicate complex thoughts and emotions that are difficult to articulate to her family, friends and professionals
So if you’re in London or going to London visit this unique collection and let me know.
Thanks Mind Hacks
These sketches were made by Klaas Koopmans (1920-2006) during his admissions as an inpatient for depression. He drew his fellow patients in psychiatric hospitals on the back of his cigar boxes and note paper. Department rules didn’t permit him drawing or painting. He made these secretly. He had bipolar disorder. His last admission to a psychiatric hospital was in 1963. His drawings can now be seen in Museum Martena in Franeker, The Netherlands.
I think they are very nice, a lot of emotion is simple drawings, looking very vulnerable. What do you think?
Stefan Sagmeister pours his heart and soul into every piece of work. He has a painstaking attention to the smallest details creates work that offers something new every time you look at it. Most important to me is his sense of humor which invariably surfaces in his designs. His techniques and ideas are unparalleled. Enjoy.
Related post on this blog: Putting numbers into images
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