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Jul 11, 2021 15:43:31 GMT
Post by mllemass on Jul 11, 2021 15:43:31 GMT
I hope the story tells that he was unjustly put away for being schizophrenic, because that’s what everyone seems to think now. They said at the time that his mental illness was evident in his how his art had changed, but that’s just not true. Art doesn’t work that way. Trying a new style of painting doesn’t mean you need to be locked up.
He was probably just an oddball who didn’t fit in. They used to put people away for all sorts of ridiculous reasons.
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Jul 11, 2021 15:45:20 GMT
Post by sgev1977 on Jul 11, 2021 15:45:20 GMT
Another random but much more positive although still erroneously comment about the article,
It’s a nice thread about her work with the great Sally Hawkins. That movie is on Netflix but I haven’t watched it yet! It looks good.
Doing the actual paintings isn’t necessarily a proof that the performance is good or bad but why she concluded that BC didn’t do the drawings based on that article? I didn’t noticed anything that suggested the opposite on it (maybe I’m wrong) and, more important, he did it! I remember his stylist showing the one he gave to him as a present (along with a prop lamp he bought for him because he told him he liked it).
I think she just wanted to presume her work which it’s ok!
EDITED, I couldn’t find the post of his stylist and I thought for a brief moment that probably I had dreamt it!
This tweet has the story behind the presents,
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Post by sgev1977 on Jul 11, 2021 16:10:03 GMT
I hope the story tells that he was unjustly put away for being schizophrenic, because that’s what everyone seems to think now. They said at the time that his mental illness was evident in his how his art had changed, but that’s just not true. Art doesn’t work that way. Trying a new style of painting doesn’t mean you need to be locked up. He was probably just an oddball who didn’t fit in. They used to put people away for all sorts of ridiculous reasons. He attacked to one of his sister. He pushed her down the stairs. He accused his surviving sisters of killing the older one who died from influenza and thought they were plotting against him. His sisters, who economically depended from him, had to institutionalized him because he was becoming dangerous to them. Again, it wasn’t him but whatever was causing his psychotic state. I think the interpretation of the paintings as an example of his mind deteriorating isn’t contemporary. Again he wasn’t locked up because the paintings but because his increasingly weird and violent behavior (after a life of being a quiet, kind and nice man). Actually, one of the criticism against the schizophrenia diagnosis based on the paintings is that they aren’t dated and no one knows for sure that the more abstract ones were actually made after him being institutionalized. We don’t know for sure if it was schizophrenia or another thing but he was undoubtedly mentally ill. There was antecedents in his direct family (he wasn’t the only sibling who died in an asylum) and there’s also the possibility of a cat’s feces illness.
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Jul 11, 2021 17:37:12 GMT
via mobile
Post by roverpup on Jul 11, 2021 17:37:12 GMT
Re: the Maude Lewis comparison... although Lewis was a painter of very charming folk art pieces, she was not a artist/illustrator of Wain's skill. Her work is, frankly, fairly easy to copy and if compared to Wain's pieces, very uncomplicated. So this is really just a false equivalency IMO.
Besides, as Sgev said, being able to mimic a painting in the style of the artist you are portraying doesn't mean that your performance in a character sense is enhanced.
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Jul 11, 2021 17:51:07 GMT
Post by sgev1977 on Jul 11, 2021 17:51:07 GMT
She admitted that it indeed didn’t requires to much skill in the other tweets on the thread. I just thought it was funny that she read something that I didn’t see on the actual article and I think it was because she just wanted to told her story! I also remembered the nice post by BC’s stylist in which he shows a painting by BC imitating Wain so she was wrong!
I also wanted to re-post the stylist’s photo but it was difficult to find again! Lol
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Jul 11, 2021 17:52:55 GMT
Post by queenzod on Jul 11, 2021 17:52:55 GMT
I’ve studied outsider artists and the style of his heavily patterned paintings are quite similar to other outsider artists who are mentally ill. The tight repetition, bright colors, absence of perspective or depth, it all fits. I’m not sure he was schizophrenic per se, and I’m glad some outlets are being circumspect about labeling him, but he was assuredly mentally ill.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:17:52 GMT
Post by mllemass on Jul 11, 2021 19:17:52 GMT
From what I’ve read about Louis Wain, art experts have concluded that his art does not show signs of schizophrenia. His work shows a lot of control and precision, and his colours are carefully thought out. They’ve said that a schizophrenic person would not be capable of doing that, even if psychiatrists disagree. He still might have been mentally ill, though.
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Jul 11, 2021 19:43:30 GMT
ellie likes this
Post by queenzod on Jul 11, 2021 19:43:30 GMT
Art “experts” disagreeing with trained psychiatrists about a mental health diagnosis. Lol. These are the same kinds of people who say a randomly discovered Pollack wasn’t a Pollack b/c it didn’t “feel” like one, even though a forensic expert proved it was. I love the arts, but many times art critics have their heads up their arses.
Schizophrenia doesn’t mean one draws all blobby like a child. Many schizophrenic artists are capable of producing extremely detailed, precise work.
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Post by mllemass on Jul 11, 2021 22:32:02 GMT
That was my point! Whether or not he was schizophrenic, his art wasn’t proof of it.
I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’ve spent most of my life studying and producing art. It’s true that artists can reveal a lot about themselves in their work. And I agree that LW might have taken what he was feeling and thinking, and turned it into those electrical-looking cat paintings.
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Jul 11, 2021 23:55:05 GMT
Post by queenzod on Jul 11, 2021 23:55:05 GMT
That was my point! Whether or not he was schizophrenic, his art wasn’t proof of it. I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’ve spent most of my life studying and producing art. It’s true that artists can reveal a lot about themselves in their work. And I agree that LW might have taken what he was feeling and thinking, and turned it into those electrical-looking cat paintings. Ah, I must have misinterpreted what you said. 👍🏼
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