Madness
2011 marks the anniversary of two essential texts: Erasmus' The Praise of Folly (1511) and Madness and Civilization: a History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1961) by Michel Foucault.
In 1919, Freud wrote "The Uncanny", a key text in the understanding of artwork, and in which he asked, "Is there a connection between art and madness?"
Many artists, unhinged by their passion, have put their inner struggle on canvas (Van Gogh, Camille Claudel, who was forcefully committed to a psychiatric hospital by her family, Antonin Artaud or André Masson), and many others, inspired by psychoanalysis, have explored the unconscious mind: the provocative Dada movement, Surrealism inventing new creative techniques that gave free rein to the unconscious (automatic writing or the exquisite corpse) the Found Art or "readymade" of Marcel Duchamp, Michaux's experimental mescaline-inspired writings and drawings and Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical works. As for Jean Dubuffet and his "Compagnie de l'art brut" ("raw art", often referred to as "outsider art") he prized the works of artists who had no artistic training and of "crazy", or "mediumistic" artists. More recently, proponents of Body Art push their bodies to the limits during public performances, i.e to the point of suffering.
Writing, like painting, sculpture and photography, also pushes this sensation of the uncanny to its limits.
