Anne Adams 'Unraveling Boléro'
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( UCSF Memory and Aging Center ) The late University of British Columbia scientist Anne Adams started to paint only after the onset of a type of brain degeneration called frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. Such damage, to the front and sides of the brain, tends to interfere with sources of personality, behavior and language. As her speech disappeared, her artistic creativity flourished.
She became fascinated with French composer Maurice Ravel, who had suffered from the same disease. And she produced a painting called "Unraveling Boléro," which attempted to translate the elements of Ravel's music into visual form. |
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Add / View comments | Discussion FAQThis sounds remarkably like the clinical diagnosis of Charles Strickland, the sociopathic "artiste" in W. Somerset Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence." Strickland had great difficulty expressing himself in language and struggled mightily to express himself through Art.
And perhaps Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin had similar afflictions. It's sad that something so beautiful as Art has its genesis in personality disorders.
This is amazing and beautiful. Also, include the theater people who have had some kind of neurological problem, like Artaud, Genet, and others. For writers, there is Dostoyevski, and certainly others (like the guy who was an up and coming author with several cutting edge books out who died a couple of years ago in LA). Van Gogh, Mussorgski, Kirkegaard, werd all said to have had seizures. It would be wonderful to have a series of articles on this theme that covered other arts, such as writers, music, and theater, in additon to fine arts.