You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The recent release of two DVDs, Between Madness and Art and Hidden Gifts: The Mystery of Angus MacPhee, presents us an opportunity to assess the value of film as compared with books and journal articles as a medium through which to communicate a psychoanalytic understanding of the creative process. The artists featured in these films were confined to European mental hospitals without revolving door policies. In the publicity materials sent out with the DVD, the producers of the first film ask, “What is the link between psychological states and the creative process? Is there a relationship between psychosis and the artistic impulse? What can artworks produced by mental patients tell us about artistic genius? Can art therapy be helpful in the treatment of the mentally ill?” Relevant discussions and debates in the psychoanalytic literature on what is being worked through by the artist in his artmaking can be found in Kris (1952), Greenacre (1971), Rosegrant (1987), MacGregor (1989), Knafo (2002), Maurer (2004), and Esman (2006).
In these films the interrelationships between mental illness and the making of art, what today we call “outsider art” or “art brut,” are examined by way of interviews with psychiatrists, caretakers, family members, and the mentally ill artists themselves. The artworks are shown in numbers that would be impossible in print due to considerations of cost and space. In my research I have learned that “outsider art” has had waves of great popularity and interest, and that Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outside Art was founded in Chicago in 1991. In New York, the Museum of American Folk Art features the work of these unusual untrained artists. A well-attended Outsider Arts Fair has been held annually since 1992, and there are many collectors. Henry Darger and Bill Traylor are two of the more famous of these artists.
Between Madness and Art, a 75-minute film by Christian Beetz (who has won awards in Germany), was released by Icarus Films in 2008.