Art and Mental Illness

 For this assignment you will research the mental health of either Frida Kahlo or Vincent Van Gogh. 

 Both of these artists created many self-portraits. Your job is to determine whether we can see signs of mental illness within her or his self-portrait. 

You must then select two articles to analyze their work:

  • One of these articles should be about one or more of her or his self-portraits.
  • The other article should be about assessing mental illness through observation OR an article discussing the mental illness of either Kahlo or Van Gogh.

Requirements:

  • Write a 500-700 word essay in which you analyze the research on her or his mental illness.
  • Analyze one or more self-portraits by either Kahlo or Van Gogh. Do you believe the portrait reflects how the artist was feeling at the time? Why or why not? 
  • Argue whether you believe it possible to diagnose someone who is no longer living based on an image of them? How?
  • What are the challenges scholars face when considering the mental illness of artists?