DEMENZA E PITTURA
di
DOMENICO SABATINI
BOLOGNA - 14 MARZO 2012
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
1) Non tutte le demenze sono uguali e non tutti i pazienti sono
uguali.
2) In nessuna demenza ci sono sintomi prodromici che
riguardano la pittura, tranne nelle demenze fronto-temporali.
3) Alcuni sintomi della demenza sono secondari a deficit visivi e
non cognitivi.
4) La produzione tarda di artisti affermati non si modifica
sempre in senso involutivo; in tutti le espressioni del disegno
si conservano più a lungo di ogni altra funzione.
5) Nei disegni ci possono essere dei messaggi da leggere,
spesso molto tempo prima della diagnosi e nelle fasi estreme
della malattia.
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
1) Non tutte le demenze sono uguali e non tutti
i pazienti sono uguali.
She demonstrates that dementia in not a monolitic entity and
that each individual is affected differently.
Asymmetric left hemisphere degeneration may release previously
untapped cognitive abilities. Our brain wiring appears to be a
major factor in determination of the nature of our creativity.
Release of creativity and originality represents an
unexspected and unexplored feature of dementia.
Fingerpainting in acrylic by
Figurines painted by an individual
an individual with A. disease
with frontotemporal dementia.
MILLER B.L, Neurology, 1998
RANKIN KP, LIU AA
A case-controlled study of altered visual art
production in Alzheimer’s and FTLD
Cogn. Behav. Neurol. 2007; 20: 48-61.
TORRANCE Test of Creative Thinking
To copy
To complete
To copy
DEMENZA FRONTO-TEMPORALE
con coinvolgimento prevalente
in sede temporale sinistra
MENDEZ MF, PERRYMAN KM
Disrupted facial empathy in drawings
from artists with fronto-temporal
dementia.
Neurocase 2003; 9 : 44-50
Portrait d’un artiste souffrant de DFT
CLASSIFICAZIONE ARTISTICA
Malattia di Alzheimer
Demenza a corpi di Lewy
FTD
con coinvolgimento prevalente TS
con coinvolgimento prevalente TD
varianti FTD
Afasia primaria non fluente
Demenza semantica
Neuronal Intermediate Filament Inclusion
D. SABATINI 2010
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
2) In nessuna demenza ci sono sintomi
prodromici che riguardano la pittura,
tranne nelle demenze fronto-temporali.
1970
1980
1983
1990
DIANA MATALLANA, PATRICIA MONTANES
Demencia y creatividad: emergencia de una actividad
pictórica en un paciente con afasia primaria
progresiva
Rev. Colomb. Psiquiat., vol. 39 / No. 1 / 2010
(…) Presentar el caso de una mujer de 66 años de edad
que premórbidamente no tenía interés por el arte, pero
comenzó a pintar a los 56 años, cuando aparecieron
alteraciones conductuales y de expresión lingüística.
El deterioro marcado del lenguaje y del comportamiento
fue progresando hasta instaurarse una afasia primaria
progresiva (APP), un subtipo de una demencia
frontotemporal (DFT), y su inusitado talento se
convirtió en el primer síntoma de la APP.
“No utilizo referencias como fotos o imágenes”
“Yo no pinto lo de afuera, sino lo que está en mi imaginación”
Unravelling Boléro: progressive aphasia, transmodal
creativity and the right posterior neocortex
William W. Seeley, Brandy R. Matthews, Richard K. Crawford, Maria Luisa
Gorno-Tempini, Dean Foti, Ian R. Mackenzie and Bruce L. Miller
Brain (2008), 131, 39-49
1996
1998
2000
Unravelling Boléro, 1996
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
3) Alcuni sintomi della demenza sono
secondari a deficit visivi e non
cognitivi.
JEFFREY L. CUMMINGS, JUDY ZARIT
Probable Alzheimer’s disease in an artist
JAMA 1987; 258: 2731-2734
Maurer K., Prvulovic D.
Carolus Horn – When the Images in the Brain Decay
Bogousslavsky J, Boller F (eds):
Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists.
Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2005, vol 19, pp 101-111
Abstract
Here we analyze the artwork of Carolus Horn, a famous German artist.
Despite developing Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), he continued to produce
drawings and paintings until he died.
There are impressive changes in spatial relations, in the preference of
colors, in the size of objects and other aspects of his paintings.
The most prominent change is the loss of 3-dimensionality, followed by a
continuous simplification and finally a decay of all objects and structures.
We point to the relation between these changes in his artwork and the
course of neuropsychological and neuropathological processes in AD.
1978
1986
1988
1975
1986
1988
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
4) La produzione tarda di artisti affermati
non si modifica sempre in senso involutivo.
In ogni caso la capacità di disegnare si
conserva più a lungo di altre funzioni e rimane
(o compare) il più spesso come unica forma di
espressione.
LEO SCHNUG
LEO SCHNUG
Self-portrait, 1931
Self-portrait, 1933
Treasure Island, 1949
Figure with dunce cap, a
repetitive theme
Animal-like floating creatures
surround a tormented individual,
drawn while Peake was suffering
from visual hallucinations.
De Kooning’s late colours and
forms: dementia, creativity,
and the healing power of art
CARLOS HUGO ESPINEL
Lancet, 347, 1096-98, april 20, 1996
In the 1980s works, the essential procedures and
techniques were not changed but simplified, and the
vocabulary of forms was retained but clarified.
Particularly in the works from 1984, the results are
paintings of an openness and freedom not seen
before, paintings that are extraordinarily lyrical,
immediately sensual, and exhilarating.
GARRELS G. (1995)
Three toads in the garden: Line, color, and form.
In Willem de Kooning. The late paintings, the 1980s (pp. 9–37).
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Walker Arts Center.
JOSHUA CHANG MELL, SARA M. HOWARD, BRUCE L. MILLER
The influence of Frontotemporal Dementia on an accomplished artist
Neurology 2003;60:1707-1710
A talented artist developed a progressive
aphasia syndrome
associated with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
As her disease progressed, language and executive skills declined, but her
paintings became freer and more original. She demonstrates that artistic
development can occur in the setting of language-dominant types of FTD.
The study of artistic development in the setting of FTD suggests that
language is not required for,
and may even inhibit, certain types of visual creativity.
CASE HISTORY
(….)
By 1986, she was having difficulty with grading and
lesson planning and slowly transferred these
responsibilities to her teenage son.
Language deficits increased, and early 1995, she
retired when she could non longer control the
classroom or remember her students’ names.
(.…)
In 1997, she … produced 12 large male nude figurative paintings, rich in
color and slightly sewual in theme, (…)
Male Figure in Cave
Male Figure Outside Town
Male Figure on Back
It is tempting to attribute the imaginative, freer, and visually complex paintings
between 1996-1997, when our patient had aphasia and behavioral
disinhibition, to FDT.
Four maskes, 1999
Only two more color pieces were completed: the Four Masks
painting from 1999 and a small watercolor made in 2001.
While no longer producing new art, she continues to have
excellent memories regarding her pictures and the strategies
that she used to create her lifetime of work.
Tableau réalisé à l’âge de 64 ans par une patiente présentant une forme
évoluée de DFT: lorsqu’elle réalise cette oeuvre, elle est boulimique,
obèse, désinhibée sur le plan verbal, avec un discours stéréotypé, et
incontinente.
1968
Unitled
Unitled
SPUNTI DI RIFLESSIONE
5) Nei disegni ci possono essere dei messaggi
da leggere, spesso molto tempo prima della
diagnosi e si conservano nelle fasi estreme
della malattia.
CRUTCH S.J., ISAACS R., ROSSOR M.N.
Some workmen can blame their tool:
artistic changes in an individual with
Alzheimer disease
Lancet, 2001, 357:2129
William Utermohlen
DENISE GRADY
The face decline
New York Times, Oct 24, 2006
SEBASTIAN DIEGUEZ
William Utermohlen: autoportrait du neant
Cerveau&Psycho N°26, mars - avril 2008
MASKS, 1996; water-colour, mixed with gouache
WILFRED OWEN: Ten Poems
William Utermohlen: Lithographie, 1994
Conversation, 1991
Snow, 1990-1991
Blue Skies, 1995