Art And Madness
Aug. 8th, 2024 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo Contrary to what people believe mad people don't make great art.
"Great wit to madness, sure, is close allied." That's something Pope tossed off. Probably without thinking it through.
The creation of great art demands mental discipline and concentration. You may be having astonishing visions but giving them artistic form is hard work.
Was Dali mad? Of course not. Eccentric, wilful, perverted, fearless, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
Madness shuts down genius. When an artist goes mad it kills their ability to make art.
I don't think Van Gogh was mad either.
Nijinsky wrote his diary as he was going mad. It isn't great art but it is the work of a great artist- and that makes it interesting. The mind wanders. The profound and the trivial sit side by side. The writing is choppy. Short sharp sentences. Non-sequiturs. He'll say a thing. And then in the next sentence say something that contradicts it. He says he's a beast. He says he's God. He doesn't censor himself
Nietsche thought he was God too. The book he wrote on the cusp is also "interesting" By a weird coincidence both Nietzsche and Nijinsky- at an interval of something like 40 years- employed the same guy to come in and make up the fires in their Swiss appartments.
I don't think mad people lose their hold on "reality". I think their mental defences get trodden down and the immensity of Reality sweeps in and overwhelms them.
"Great wit to madness, sure, is close allied." That's something Pope tossed off. Probably without thinking it through.
The creation of great art demands mental discipline and concentration. You may be having astonishing visions but giving them artistic form is hard work.
Was Dali mad? Of course not. Eccentric, wilful, perverted, fearless, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
Madness shuts down genius. When an artist goes mad it kills their ability to make art.
I don't think Van Gogh was mad either.
Nijinsky wrote his diary as he was going mad. It isn't great art but it is the work of a great artist- and that makes it interesting. The mind wanders. The profound and the trivial sit side by side. The writing is choppy. Short sharp sentences. Non-sequiturs. He'll say a thing. And then in the next sentence say something that contradicts it. He says he's a beast. He says he's God. He doesn't censor himself
Nietsche thought he was God too. The book he wrote on the cusp is also "interesting" By a weird coincidence both Nietzsche and Nijinsky- at an interval of something like 40 years- employed the same guy to come in and make up the fires in their Swiss appartments.
I don't think mad people lose their hold on "reality". I think their mental defences get trodden down and the immensity of Reality sweeps in and overwhelms them.
