How Has Art Survived the Ages?
Research finds a high prevalence of mental illness in artistic individuals pursuing a creative career, such as painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, plus those involved with theater. Writers are 121% more likely to be bipolar, as well as twice as likely to attempt suicide.
Mental illnesses have a large impact on the sufferer’s creativity and how they express themselves. These illnesses and their impacts are visible in some of the world’s most famous paintings, literature, etc.
Although no records show Monet suffered from a mental illness, he did attempt suicide to escape the financial burden he was under when his career as a painter was failing.
Judy Garland suffered from bipolar disorder, as well as Ludwig van Beethoven, Isaac Newton, Ernest Hemingway, and Edgar Allen Poe. Virginia Woolf drowned herself.
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and lost my mind in the process,” to quote Vincent Van Gogh. In a fit of madness, he infamously cut off a piece of his own ear. Belittled and ridiculed most of his lifetime. Starry Night depicts the view from his window in an insane asylum.
To conclude, mental illnesses such as depression, has had a clear influence on some of the world’s most famous artists since time immemorial.
