Dementia and Change of Style: Willem de Kooning - Obliteration of Disease Patterns?

Abstract

The studies on the relation between artistic production, especially visual art, and brain function gave a basis to the development of neuroesthetics. Most of the information on brain artistic creativity comes from studies on brain disease in well-established visual artists. Brain disease may cause change, dissolution, or emergence of artistic creativity. The visual artistic production may become impaired in individuals with a variety of brain diseases, including focal and generalised disorders of sudden and slowly progressive onset. In addition to that, neurological disorders may add content into visual art production, even becoming the artistic theme. Here, we discuss the particular case of abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning and the evolution of his artistic production in the context of his neurodegenerative illness. The change of de Kooning's artistic style has been the subject of many reviews, and the main focus of this paper is on artistic style across his prolific artistic career in the context of his progressive neurological condition, which he developed in his late years, and his long history of alcohol addiction. There are conflicting data from the literature on the effect of his neurological condition and clear cognitive decline on his artistic output, with preservation of recognition and the quality of his art. Hence, two pertinent questions relate to how he was able to maintain his output despite his cognitive decline, and how his condition could have affected his work.