![]() “This exhibition captures the vibrancy and imagination in Louis Wain’s work, but also reflects the relief and joy he found in the act of creating and the animals he depicted,” says David Luck, Archivist at Bethlem Museum of the Mind. Indeed, these later kaleidoscopic cat patterns were often constructed around a clear grid system, revealing them as careful compositions rather than the product of impulsiveness coming from someone who is gradually losing his perceptive skills.Īdditionally, some of Wain’s later work produced at Napsbury Hospital was figurative and proves that he continued to be an accomplished and coherent artist whilst in a mental health care setting. Growing up, Wain was surrounded by patterns and textiles as his father was a traveling textile salesman, his maternal grandmother a tapestry designer and his mother designed patterns for Turkish-style carpets and ecclesiastical fabrics. ![]() It is also highly possible that his experimentation in style was inspired by the family’s background in textile design. These theories are still used in psychiatric literature to help illustrate schizophrenia but as Wain rarely dated his work, it is now believed to be extremely difficult to demonstrate that the apparent shift in his artistic practice coincided with a decline of his mental state. Maclay believed the paintings fitted the contemporary understanding of psychotic deterioration: as Wain’s mental health declined, so he became less able to represent cats coherently. There is still some conjecture around when these remarkable pictures were produced, but in the late 1930’s, psychiatrist Dr Walter Maclay became fascinated with them after finding a cache of them in a junk shop in Notting Hill. The cats also seemingly benefited from this new interest and among his most famous – or perhaps voguish – works today are his kaleidoscopic cat pictures. ![]() While at Napsbury Wain also began to produce many of his plant and flower drawings. He even moved beyond the world of anthropomorphic cats and other animals to produce a series of fantastical landscapes featuring animals, but their presence is more suggestive, as though in embroidery. c.1930Īt Bethlem and Napsbury, the art materials available to him were different and Wain was freed from commercial constraints and became increasingly interested in pattern and colour. Long considered eccentric by many, as Wain aged his mental health deteriorated and from 1910 he began to decline, although it has been suggested that his eccentricity masked this from his friends and family. Wain is sometimes credited as popularizing the cat as a pet in the Victorian and Edwardian England. In 1898 he even became President of the National Cat Club and also designed the Club’s logo (featuring in the medal displayed in the exhibition), which is still used today. He wrote widely on his cat theories – including his belief that they gave off electricity, were magnetic, and hated orange peel. As a result, many of his pictures were widely used in merchandising, adding to his popularity but not to his own wealth via royalties.Īs his cat drawings grew in fame he became an advocate for the cat in Britain, despite knowing little about them. Despite Wain’s popularity as an illustrator, he wasn’t a successful businessman, and often produced drawings without retaining their copyright.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |