Self-portraits and Alzheimer's

Portrait of courage - an artist continues doing self-portraits as his Alzheimer's progresses.

New York Times article here



©2006 Galerie Beckel-Odille-Boicos
A self-portrait of William Utermohlen in 1967, top, and 2000, above.


Part of the article here -

Self-Portraits Chronicle a Descent Into Alzheimer's

By DENISE GRADY
Published: October 24, 2006
When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer's disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist in London, responded in characteristic fashion.

"From that moment on, he began to try to understand it by painting himself," said his wife, Patricia Utermohlen, a professor of art history.

Mr. Utermohlen's self-portraits are being exhibited through Friday at the New York Academy of Medicine in Manhattan, by the Alzheimer's Association.

The paintings starkly reveal the artist's descent into dementia, as his world began to tilt, perspectives flattened and details melted away. His wife and his doctors said he seemed aware at times that technical flaws had crept into his work, but he could not figure out how to correct them.

"The spatial sense kept slipping, and I think he knew," Professor Utermohlen said. A psychoanalyst wrote that the paintings depicted sadness, anxiety, resignation and feelings of feebleness and shame.

Dr. Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies artistic creativity in people with brain diseases, said some patients could still produce powerful work.

"Alzheimer's affects the right parietal lobe in particular, which is important for visualizing something internally and then putting it onto a canvas," Dr. Miller said. "The art becomes more abstract, the images are blurrier and vague, more surrealistic. Sometimes there's use of beautiful, subtle color."

Mr. Utermohlen, 73, is now in a nursing home. He no longer paints.

End of clip from article.