Self-portraits before and after Alzheimer's. William Utermohlen's latest art project

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

American artist William Utermohlen died in 2007 at the age of 74 from Alzheimer's disease, leaving behind a huge collection of original paintings. But deserves special attention series of self-portraitsdated 1996-2000 years, since this is not only the last art project of the artist before his death, but also an important material for scientific research. With his paintings, William Uthermolen wanted to clearly demonstrate how a person's consciousness changes as this terrible disease progresses. The artist was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995, but his wife Patricia, who, despite her advanced age, still teaches art history, says that the symptoms of the disease were noticeable long before the official "verdict". But giving up was not in the nature of her husband, and he held on to the last, continuing to draw every day, when he felt the strength to raise his hand with a brush, pencil or pastel, and go to the easel.

From year to year, almost until his death, he waged a desperate struggle with his body and progressive dementia, and these self-portraits reflect the depth of the artist's emotional and physical tragedy, testify to the slow, painful degradation of mind, body and spirit, leading to the final and complete erasure of personality. This is most vividly emphasized by pencil drawings on white paper, made at a time when Alzheimer's began to devour the artist's motor skills. The disease won the final victory over the body in 2000, when the last self-portrait was drawn. And despite the fact that William Uthermolen lived after that for another 7 years, his widow is sure that he died in 2000, when he lost the ability to draw and the strength to fight the disease.

Uthermolen was very supportive of the doctors, under whose supervision he was until his death, as well as the nurse, the first viewer of "Alzheimer's self-portraits", and sometimes the assistant, assistant to the artist. Thanks to her, photographs of sketches and sketches, the most successful and unsuccessful drawings, created during the period of progression of dementia, have been preserved. All works of the artist's latest art project are unique artistic, medical and psychological documents. They show with what persistence and resourcefulness the artist adapts his style and technique of painting to the growing limitation of perception of reality and the loss of motor skills. They also show that art therapy is not only a way to calm down, but also a powerful tool in the fight against diseases like Alzheimer's.

Self-portraits before and after Alzheimer's, the latest art project of William Utermohlen, are presented in a separate exhibition, which has already been seen by thousands of people, dozens of countries and hundreds of cities. And there is hardly a single person whom they would leave indifferent.