Does anyone know of any contemporary artists that are insane?

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I'm doing my dissertation on whether there is a correlation between art and insanity and I really need some help trying to gain more artists for my research and maybe sources and evidence of this. I already have a few artists such as:
Yayoi Kusama
Mark Rothko
Jean Michel Basquiat
and Jackson Pollock
But out of those only one is alive. I would be very grateful for any help.
My use of the word insane is very loose, and I would very much like artists with severe depression or who are influenced by mental illness/insanity.
Thank you ^^
asked Aug 15, 2013 in Artists

1 Answer

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1. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/11… - Mexican artist Martín Ramírez from mental institution. From this study they found more artists to have depression, and/or bi-polar disorder and share more personality traits with the mentally ill than “normal” people in less creative pursuits.
2. Art and Insanity: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/06/arts/a…
3. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-… - Stephen Wiltshire’s art, who is autistic.
4. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/no… - 
5. http://www.chowk.com/Views/Education/Are…
I know many artists who are "different" and "unusual", sometimes emotional, depressed...not yet insane (that I know of). We do crawl inside ourselves to pull out of our psyches "things" that no one else can see or know, they're personal from experiences or just life happenings, then we put them down on paper, carvings, canvas, etc. Those "things" are there to get out and sometimes just shared. Artists, as I know myself, can be overwhelmed with emotions, both good or bad. To maintain some sort of "normal" we do art, get it out, in hopes that it moves viewers or sells...this is just the tip of an iceburg.
'Hope some of this helps you.
answered Aug 15, 2013