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The discovery of the art of the insane /

By:

MacGregor, John M. (John Monroe)

Material type: Text

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0691040710
9780691040714
0691000360

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

History.

LOC classification:

RC455.4.A77 M33 1989
N71.5 .M33 1989

Contents:

The confrontation: the artist and the madman -- The physician and the art of the patient -- Georget and Géricault: the portraits of the insane -- Jonathan Martin of Bedlam -- Insanity the context of romanticism -- Cesare Lombroso: the theory of genius and insanity -- Paul-Max Simon and the study of psychiatry and art -- Victorian bedlam: the case of Richard Dadd -- William Noyes and the case of "G" -- The Chicago conference -- Marcel Réja: critic of the art of the insane -- Hans Prinzhorn and the German contribution -- The world of Adolf Wölfli -- Expressionism and the art of the insane -- Psychoanalysis and the study of psychotic art -- Psychosis and surrealism -- Dubuffet and the aesthetic of Art Brut -- Conclusion.

Summary: "Assessing the significance of the artistic activity of the mentally ill, Paul Klee recommended that the work of psychotic artists be "taken seriously, more seriously than all the public galleries when it comes to reforming today's art." This pioneering work, the first history of the art of the insane. scrutinizes changes in attitudes toward the art of the mentally ill from a time when it was either ignored or ridiculed, through the era when Klee, along with other major figures in the art world, discovered the extraordinary power of visual statements by psychotic artists such as Adolf Wolfli and Richard Dadd. John MacGregor draws on his dual training in art history and in psychiatry and psychoanalysis to describe not only this evolution in attitudes, but also the significant influence of the art of the mentally ill on the development of modern art as a whole. His detailed narrative, with its strangely beautiful illustrations, introduces us to a fascinating group of people that includes the psychotic artists, both trained and untrained, and the psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, critics, and art historians who encountered their work. After discussing the situation of the mentally ill in the 1700s, and the later Romantic obsession with the insane as visionary heroes, MacGregor explores the process of discovery of psychotic art in the latter half of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. In separate chapters he then relates this discovery to later developments - German Expressionism and the Nazis' purge of "degenerate" art and artists; Surrealism; and Jean Dubuffet and l'Art Brut. This work will attract a wide audience of general readers, artists, and art historians, as well as those in the field of psychology and psychiatry" -- Dust jacket.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Carleton University, AVRC	Open-stacks	RC455.4.A77 M33 1989 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		16055000616

Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-377) and index.

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The discovery of the art of the insane /