The Truth of the Tortured Artist

okay so I made a video called the myth of the tortured artist and after it came out I realized pretty quickly that I need to acknowledge the truth of it too I stand by my statement that there is little to no conclusive research linking creativity and mental illness full stop but I failed to address a few things including that making art can be hard really hard it can be born of great pain and suffering and that is indeed the definition of tortured there are tortured artists in the world not only because some people lead tortured lives whether or not they're artists but because it's not easy to make good art to find that small bit of ground where you can effectively communicate something of yourself to someone else and do so using a bunch of marks on a page or gobs of raw material artist author and animator Christoph Neiman has very accurately described how difficult the creative process can be and he's also illustrated the satisfaction that can come when the internal struggle is turned outward and transformed into something that can be shared there are artworks that took months years or even decades to complete the result of considerable hardship toil physical and psychological labor and there are also artworks that unfold in a short period of time appearing before our eyes with a few swipes of a silk screen and lodging forever in our collective consciousness near the end of his life van Gogh could produce a painting in a day or two as could American painter James McNeill Whistler who admitted in court testimony in 1878 that it had taken him one or two days tops to create his now-famous but then scandalously abstract work Nocturne in black and gold the Attorney General thought that was absurd saying Oh to days the labor of two days then is that for which you asked 200 guineas to which Whistler responded no I asked it for the knowledge of a lifetime I this up because I think there's part of the tortured artist stereotype that we want to hang on to maybe because if an artist struggles over a piece it's at least a modicum of validation for art being so expensive if an artist anguished over something rested it from the dark recesses of their soul or bled into the canvas metaphorically or literally that it might seem like a more valuable commodity containing more actual work but if an artist seems too happy or seems to be enjoying themselves too much then maybe they're a charlatan pulling the wool over our eyes asking mind-boggling sums for art that wasn't that much of an inconvenience to create but then again we appreciate art also respect skill and craft that Whistler reminds us can be built up over the course of a career Matisse could describe a subject brilliantly with only a few lines but that ability was honed something he worked on diligently throughout his life likewise Picasso is known for his progression of lithographs of a bull starting out more realistic and with a high degree of detail and then winnowing it down over the course of several prints into only the marks that are absolutely necessary that's why we call art a practice right it's something that you work at that gets easier and harder and easier and harder as you try new approaches and techniques and figure out ways of working that makes sense for you if you experience success that you have to continually evolve to it's stressful and success if it comes is almost always fleeting the most comforting advice I've ever read comes from John Cage's ten rules for students and teachers find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while this is all to say that I don't blame artists who become tortured in this process but the most important thing I fail to acknowledge is that art can convey many emotions and attitudes and experiences including pain and struggle and difficulty art can give form to our worst most wretched thoughts ideas feelings and fears Picasso's famous blue period is called that not only because the paintings have a lot of blue in them but because he was really sad at the time he was mourning the loss of his good friend Carlos Casas Hamas who died by suicide in 1901 Picasso's paintings of this period depict his own dejected State and also the poverty and despair of those he witnessed all around him Frida Kahlo is another artist whose work show us the extreme pain that she suffered in her lifetime the chronic physical pain that plagued her continually after a street car accident at age 18 the physical and psychological pain of miscarriage and the pain of having a no-good philandering husband we know that art can be a tremendous release valve for suffering after the loss of three of his brothers Tyree Gaytan returned to the street he grew up on in Detroit in 1986 finding it in ruins he said about transforming it into a massive walkthrough art environment designed to be enjoyed by the community Louise Bourgeois wrote that making art for her was a form of therapy she was very open in her life about the personal symbolism in her work exploring her childhood traumas and exercising inner anxieties and demons British law didn't make art for other people calling the audience [ __ ] unnecessary her longtime assistants once explained she's not sitting down to make art she's trying to get through the day and the art is the byproduct Madge Gill didn't start to make art until her late thirties after losing a son to influenza giving birth to a stillborn daughter and suffering a terrible illness that caused her to lose sight in one eye she began to knit and write and create enormous volumes of drawings some made at night in complete darkness guided by a spirit she named Myra interest Hiroyuki joy began making his circle drawings around 1985 after the sudden death of his younger brother and quitting his career as a chef joy has written that this repetitive obsessive way of producing art gave him relief from the sadness and grief art is an outlet capable of addressing our darkest most secret thoughts motivations and desires and that's one reason why people like it it gives us a way to feel less alone in our dark this to know that others have experienced it too and that there's looked like this or felt like this or sounded like this [Music] [Applause] [Music] so the myth is not that tortured artists exist there are plenty of them it's that you don't have to be tortured to be an artist art is born of many states of mind including curiosity joy appreciation reverence or even boredom an art can do other things besides express inner states it can share histories reconsider histories serve a master support a cause commemorate provoke frame landscapes or reflect the world around it and the interior experience of an artist isn't necessarily something we can tell by their art or as part of the story or PR messaging behind their work there is evidence that creativity and productivity take a nosedive when you're severely depressed or experiencing extreme symptoms of mental illness the danger of the tortured artist myth arises when you neglect your mental health or worse consciously leave it untreated in order to be the suffering soul you think you need to be in order to make good work art can be an outstanding way to communicate that suffering but only if you're a alive and be well enough to see it through for all the tortured artists out there keep showing us what you got we want to know about the dark places you've been we want to see what helps you get out of it and we want you to stay healthy enough in order to do that did you know that our show is called the art assignment because we used to give out actual art assignments well it's true including a brilliant one by Christoph Nieman who we mentioned in this episode we've taken a pause in issuing new assignments but you can still go check out the 60 excellent ones that are readily available and that will give you glimpses into the processes of artists who make work in a wide variety of ways tortured and not thank you to all of our patrons for supporting the art assignment especially Vincent Appa visit patreon.com slash art assignment if you'd like to learn more about how you can support the channel [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Art Assignment

Views: 258,662

Keywords: tortured artist, tortured artists, frida kahlo, christoph neimann, Picasso, Whistler, Matisse, Louise Bourgeois, Tyree Guyton, Madge Gill, Hiroyuki Doi, art, art history, contemporary art

Id: 4IpTxQ_DWy0

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 31 2019