Neuroscience Art Gallery: Art by Psychotics. Louis Wain

Retratos de Gatos Pintados na Progressão da Psicose
de um Artista Esquizofrênico

By Silvia Helena Cardoso

Louis Wain
1860-l939

A progressiva fuga da realidade para a fantasia está expressa nas de figuras desta página. São de Louis Wain, artista plástico europeu do início deste século. Wain, desde jovem, costumava pintar retratos de gatos para calendários, albuns, cartões-postais, etc. Aos 57 anos, sua vida e sua arte apresentavam sintomas de psicose. Passou os últimos 15 anos da vida em instituições psiquiátricas. Os retratos dos gatos que pintava, tomou uma forma ameaçadora. Reveladores de seu estado psicótico são os olhos dos gatos, que miram fixamente com hostilidade, mesmo num de seus primeiros desenhos desta fase (primeira imagem). O psicótico geralmente acha que o mundo crava nele olhares hostis. Outro sinal é a fragmentação do corpo. As imagens do corpo sofrem uma estranha transformação na psicose e quase sempre são representadas com distorção.

Período Normal

Período Psicótico

Stage 1. The cat is alerted by an intuitional feeling that something is amiss. Reality is not exactly as it seems. Her curiosity is piqued and the spirit of adventure comes alive.

Stage 2. In this picture, the cat seems to be in a much more hostile stance, where a devilish tone of red pervades the profile as well as the eyes. This seems to be a projection of the fear that Wain was feeling of being posessed by demon. The colored halos around the cat are usually found in paintings by psychotics.

Stage 3. The cats are more abstract, with a total desintegration of reality. he takes on a sort of demonic air. Wain has substituted the soft cat forms for simmetric, obsessive, and formal ondes, in a desperate effort to control his mental functions in disarray.

Stage 4. Now the cat is moving along to the furthest depths of perception and thought. No longer hindered by the distractions of pleasure or amusement, he becomes more passive in appearance, yet much is happening within. The eyes widen so as to be able to absorb all that passes in front of them.

Stage 5. He has finally passed all boundaries and limits. There is nothing more to learn. The ego dissolves. The cat has, in effect, ceased to be. All that is left is a beautiful, impersonal pattern of energy.

See more Art By Psychotics