Art Exhibition (with due reserve)
WPA Section on Art and Psychiatry presents
Artists from Psychiatry
“Art should cause violence to be set aside and it is only art that can accomplish this.”
Leo Tolstoy
At a time when violence and aggression dominate the news, and we daily are reminded of the dangers of thinking in exclusive terms, art affords as a model of dialogue in which the other is accepted as an equal conversation partner.
Art brut in specific has become a section of art interacting with academic artistic traditions and through its integration following the same rules that apply to academic art.
They have entered collections and museums.
They are part of the art market.
They have become an influence to academic art.
Artists thus are artists no matter of their origin.
In order to represent this development the current exhibition will have its focus on two central dimensions.
The first consists of works of art by psychiatric patients who have become appraised and valued artists by being members of famous artistic centers namely in Gugging and in the Living Museum, New York.
The second allows a selective number of single artists to represent their personal artistic development while going through serious psychiatric crises. It involves their emotional development through the use of art and yet showing the artistic evolution at the same time, often inspired by the existentialistic experience they went through.
In general art fosters cooperative communication in which the dignity of human mankind is reaffirmed.
At the same time, art allows for critical distance, retrospection, and vast opportunities for individual progress, and thus may improve self-image and self-esteem.
Thus this exhibition celebrates creativity as a force that has the potential to implement changes in society as a whole and to counteract destructive aggressive tendencies.
Curators
Dr. Hans-Otto Thomashoff
& Dr. Ekaterina Sukhanova
© Oud Consultancy - Amsterdam - The Netherlands - 
