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Personal study: How does mental health affect artwork
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Personal study on how an artists' mental health affected their artwork
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RELEVANT PERSONAL STUDY DRAFTQuestion: ‘Exploring how societal views of mental health issues and the effects of the conditions
themselves affect an artist’s artwork, a study ranging from Vincent Van Gogh to Charlie and Eddie
Proudfoot’
‘Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.’ Eileen Miller
For centuries, the creation of artwork has been used as a form of therapy for those with mental health
conditions; yet ‘art therapy’ has only recently been identified as an actual practice. This essay will be
exploring the sociological view of mental illnesses in different contexts, and societal treatment of
differing artists due to their mental illnesses. My hypothesis is that in the 1800s, mental health
disorders would not have been widely recognised, leading to worse mental health conditions. This
could have led to artworks that are expressive of intense low mood and distress. Juxtaposing this, one
can infer that in the 21st Century, mental illnesses are more widely recognised and so treatment is
more effective. Art Therapy is now available on the NHS and it has been proven to be very effective
due to the cathartic nature of artwork. So therefore, I would hypothesise that contemporary artworks
could present a more optimistic outlook for those struggling with their mental health.
The relevance of this topic to my work
The period of lockdown in 2020 was extremely negative to the state of the average person’s mental
health due to isolation and lack of social interaction. One in four people will now experience a mental
health condition every year and it is reported that one in 6 people will experience a common mental
health disorder in a week (including depression or anxiety). In a given week in England, you can
expect to see 8 in 100 people being diagnosed with mixed depression and anxiety disorder and 4 in
100 people diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In July of 2020, I joined the 8 in 100
people, and was diagnosed with a mixed depression and anxiety disorder called ‘Mixed mood
Disorder’. My mental health condition caused suffering and emotional discomfort, leading me to
undergo over a year of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It was not until I began treatment that I
realised mental health issues are extremely common, so there is no need for a stigma surrounding
them.
The societal view of mental health conditions in the 19th Century
In the early 19th Century, there was almost no available care for mental illnesses, yet as the 1800s
developed, there were new mental institutions which offered a range of different treatments for
mental disorders. However society was not exceptionally accepting of mental health conditions; often
those who displayed symptoms of mental health conditions were isolated from society, and kept in
inhuman conditions until they died. Yet, in the 1800s, protests rose over the conditions that the
mentally ill had to put up with which led to the growth of a more humanitarian view of mental health
issues. Even though there was more support for the mentally unwell, science was not ready to help;
many patients were left uncured, and doctors became sceptical about the efficacy of treatment for
mental health conditions. This scepticism led to many mental hospitals deteriorating, causing the
dismal conditions we often associate mental institutions with today.
, An example of an artist who lived in the 19th Century and became a societal outcast as a result of his
mental illness was Vincent Van Gogh.
VINCENT VAN GOGH
Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Zundert in The Netherlands and then later died in 1890 in
France at the age of 37. His death was as a result of
his injuries that he gained from shooting himself
with a revolver. Van Gogh grew up in an upper
middle class family, his father was a pastor and he
lived a cultural and religious life in his early days.
In Van Gogh’s early career, his paintings were very
dark, with a sombre mood. Van Gogh’s brother
supported him through his art career, and he tried
to sell Van Gogh’s paintings, but no one ever
wanted to buy them. In 1886, Vincent Van Gogh
moved to Paris to learn impressionism from artists
such as
Claude
Monet and Edgar Degas. Van Gogh then moved to Arles in
1888 to open The Yellow House, his own art school. Gaugin
moved to Arles to help him, yet Van Gogh proved difficult to
work with, and Van Gogh tried to attack Gaugin with a razor,
but he sorely missed and ended up severing his own ear. In
1889 van Gogh committed himself to a mental hospital as he
was unable to take care of himself. Van Gogh still continued
to paint whilst in the institution where he painted ‘Starry
Night’, which he painted whilst having a nervous breakdown.
This painting by
Vincent Van Gogh is
called ‘At eternity’s
gate’. This is an oil
painting which was
created in 1890.
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